SHANGHAI - Agencies providing Hong Kong maternity services have increased their fees following the special administrative region's move to reduce the quota of births by mainland mothers.

The agencies say maternity beds in Hong Kong's public and private hospitals are now very difficult to secure and that prices are rising accordingly.

"The new policy will most likely reduce the quota, and to order a bed in a Hong Kong hospital will not be as easy as before," an agent surnamed Jin from a Shenzhen-based Hong Kong maternity services company told a China Daily reporter who posed as an expectant mother.