Having a second child, 7 months of maternity leave
According to the Ministry of Health, the birth rate in Vietnam has continuously decreased in recent years, falling below the replacement birth rate (from 2.11 children/woman in 2021 to 1.96 children/woman), and is forecast to continue to decrease if there is no effective intervention.
Faced with this situation, the Department of Population - Ministry of Health has advised the Ministry of Health to submit to the Government a dossier proposing the development of a Population Law and a draft Population Law, proposing 3 major groups of policies: Maintaining replacement fertility; reducing gender imbalance at birth and bringing the sex ratio at birth to a natural balance; improving population quality.
Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population, said: With the policy of maintaining the replacement fertility rate, the draft law proposes to stipulate that each couple and individual has the right to make an equal and voluntary decision in giving birth, the time of giving birth, the number of children and the distance between births appropriate to the age, health status, learning, working conditions, income and raising children of the individual and couple.
At the same time, the draft law also proposes to allow female workers to extend maternity leave for 7 months instead of 6 months when giving birth to a second child; create conditions for women who give birth to 2 children in industrial parks, export processing zones and provinces and cities with low birth rates to be supported to rent and buy social housing.
Many priority policies
Regarding this issue, the Prime Minister previously issued Decision No. 588/QD-TTg approving the Program for Adjusting birth rates in accordance with regions and subjects by 2030 to maintain replacement fertility nationwide, preventing the trend of decreasing birth rates in some provinces and cities.
It has proposed a number of solutions to achieve the goal of firmly maintaining the replacement fertility rate nationwide, including encouraging men and women to marry before the age of 30, not to marry late and give birth early, women to have a second child before the age of 35...
At the same time, build an environment and community suitable for families raising young children such as user-friendly services: taking care of children, welcoming children, childcare, breast milk bank, family doctor... Planning and building care and childcare centers, kindergartens suitable for the conditions of mothers, especially economic zones, industrial parks, urban areas.
In addition, supporting women during pregnancy and childbirth such as consultation and health care for mothers and children, including infertility screening, prenatal and postpartum screening, and preventing malnutrition; creating conditions for women to return to work after giving birth...
At the same time, there are policies to support and encourage couples who have two children: buy social housing, rent houses; prioritize going to public schools, support children's education costs; build a management model, and develop the family economy.
