When 36-year-old Lois heard the news that China was relaxing its one child policy, she was delighted and relieved.
The Beijing mother had just discovered she was five weeks pregnant with her second child, a baby who would be illegal under existing law, and the alternatives were bleak. She had ruled out an abortion, but faced the prospect of keeping the infant in hiding, and not being able to send the child to school. If caught, she could face a fine of more than $50,000.
"When the policy change came out, my friends said it had happened just for me, just like a story you read in a novel," she said in an interview, while her 6-year-daughter skipped and played with friends under an imposing statue of Mao Zedong in a park in Beijing.