Objective  To explore fertility status of childbearing women in Shanxi province and to provide evidences for developing strategies on reproduction health promotion in the population.

  Methods  We conducted a questionnaire survey on fertility status and willingness among 6 079 women aged 15 – 49 years selected with three-stage probability proportionate to size sampling across Shanxi province from July to August 2017.

  Results  Among the participants, 2 134 (35.10%) had two children; the average ideal number of child reported was 1.92 and the average number of child planned to have was 1.78. Of the participants intending to have a child, 334 (50.38%) reported to have a birth within next 3 years. For the participants not intending to have a child, 2 451 (68.15%) reported financial burden as a major aspect for their consideration. For all the participants, 3 616 reported taking measures for contraception and the overall contraception rate was 83.15%. The use of intrauterine device was reported by 63.46% and 49.96% of the urban and rural women taking contraception measures. An average maternity leave of 152.98 days was reported by the mothers surveyed and 65.54% of the mothers with employment reported the wage level similar to that before childbearing; both the reported maternity leave and the wage are basically in line with the governmental requirement. Of the mothers surveyed, 581 (74.04%) took care of children themselves and only 5 (0.62%) of them had their children cared by the children's fathers.

  Conclusion  The implementation of the universal two-child policy played a positive role on fertility status but failed to achieve the expected outcome among childbearing women in Shanxi province. More measures are needed to promote effective implementation of the universal two-child policy.