Fear of giving birth mainly due to financial pressure
Having just given birth to her first baby at the age of 30, Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Ha (born in 1994, residing in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City) said that the biggest reason why many couples are afraid to have children or only have one child is because of financial pressure.
According to Ms. Ha, the cost of giving birth and raising a child from birth to adulthood in Ho Chi Minh City is currently very high, while some of the city's policies are only temporary incentives, lacking long-term support.
"Before planning to get pregnant, I spent about 3 million VND on vaccinations for diseases such as hepatitis B, flu... After getting pregnant, the expenses increased many times, including medical examination fees (about 12 million VND for the entire pregnancy), monthly vaccinations (about 20 million VND for the first year), diapers, medicine, baby supplies (about 7 million VND/month)... and many other expenses such as delivery fees, delivery room, milk. If we roughly calculate the main expenses, the amount of money to give birth and take care of the baby in the first year is nearly 200 million VND" - Ms. Ha shared.
According to Ms. Ha, if the economic foundation of the couple is not strong enough and there is no support from both sides of the family, having children is truly a "nightmare" for young families, especially in the context of the cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City being among the most expensive in the country.
Ms. Cao Duong Quynh Tho (born in 1999, living in Binh Thanh district), currently working in communications at a technology company, said she welcomed the city's decision.
"In addition to such incentive and motivational policies, there needs to be long-term support policies on social welfare and social security, ensuring necessary and sufficient factors, especially education and health care for children," said Ms. Tho.
The challenge of birth promotion policies
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper reporters about the above policy, MSc. Pham Chanh Trung - Head of the Department of Population and Family Planning of Ho Chi Minh City - said that this policy is not economic support to solve the problem of low birth rate in the city but is only a part of support in many medical support solutions that are being considered.
"However, policies also face many challenges, one of which is the unique characteristics of young groups," Mr. Trung assessed.
There are two distinct groups of people, the first is the group that wants to have children but is not secure about finances and conditions for raising and caring for children. The other group is those who have financial conditions but have changed their views on the age of marriage (later) and having fewer children to ensure good child-rearing but also ensure that they have enough conditions to care for and develop themselves in a competitive work environment.
According to Mr. Trung, to solve the problem of low birth rate, it is necessary to have the participation of the entire political system and the consensus and support of the people. Based on the synchronization of new policies is the most important thing, so there should be specific policies on social security, support for education, health care, living, housing, personal income tax... so that couples can truly feel secure in having children and having enough 2 children.
"The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has passed a resolution to continue to support free tuition for nearly 500,000 secondary school students. This is also one of the solutions to support the solution to the low birth rate issue," Mr. Trung gave an example.
Mr. Trung believes that the most important thing is still the support policies for couples of marriageable and childbearing age, so that they can raise their children in the best conditions for development, because this is the resource for future socio-economic development as well as in line with the most important goal of population policy, which is to improve population quality.
