SGGP 07/18/2023 13:10

While the national fertility rate is 2.09 children per woman of childbearing age, in Ho Chi Minh City it is only 1.39 children per woman - not reaching the replacement level. If the fertility rate continues to remain low, it will cause significant consequences for the city's future socio-economic development.

A cesarean section at Hung Vuong Hospital, HCMC

Women are increasingly "lazy" to give birth

Although her son is 8 years old, Ms. Le Kim Hoa (living in Nha Be district) still has no intention of having a second child. "My husband and I are both workers, with an income of only 15 million VND/month. Raising a child in Ho Chi Minh City costs a lot of money. When the child is young, there are diapers, milk, and vaccinations. When the child is older, there are regular schooling, extracurricular classes, and extracurricular activities, not to mention the need for someone to take care of and pick up the child. If I have another child, I'm afraid I won't be able to raise him," Ms. Hoa explained why she has no intention of having another child. Ms. Pham Thu Trang (living in Thu Duc city) decided not to have another child because she doesn't have time to take care of and pick up the child from school. According to Ms. Trang, both husband and wife work for a foreign company, are busy with work, and travel frequently, so the care of the children and the house is almost left to the maternal grandmother and the maid. Although both sides of the family have repeatedly urged her, Ms. Trang and her husband still choose to have only one child. Ms. Trang expressed: “I chose to have one child because I don’t have much time to spend with my child. Having one or two children is not important to me, the important thing is to take good care of and raise my child well.”

Economic pressure, busy work... are the reasons why many women in Ho Chi Minh City are reluctant to have a second child. According to data from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Population and Family Planning, from 2000 to now, the city's birth rate has continuously decreased. If in 2000, the birth rate was 1.76 children/woman of childbearing age, by 2022, this number was only 1.39. One of the main reasons is that late marriage has become a trend among modern young people, causing the birth rate to decrease. Along with that, raising and caring for children today requires a lot of expenses, leading to the mentality of having fewer children so that children can live in the most materially and spiritually complete environment. In addition, the speed of urbanization makes it difficult to find jobs, housing, living..., while the cost of raising a child to adulthood is very high, making many couples reluctant to have more children.

The trend of women having fewer children makes the risk of a future labor shortage more real. Based on demographic models, low fertility will have a strong impact on the population structure, the proportion of young people and people of working age is decreasing, while the proportion of the elderly is increasing. This further increases the rate of population aging in Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, the city is entering the population aging stage with an index of 49.4%, higher than the whole country (48.8%), while the health care system has not caught up with the rate of population aging. On the other hand, in terms of society, many families currently choose to have only 1 child according to the formula 4-2-1, meaning 4 grandparents, 2 parents will take care of a child, then in the future, the child will have to take care of 2 parents and 4 grandparents at the same time in the reverse direction 1-2-4.

Increasing birth rate - a difficult problem?

In the program to adjust the birth rate to 2030, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City sets a goal: to increase the total birth rate to 1.4 children/woman by 2025, aiming for 1.6 children/woman by 2030. The city's population is about 10.6 million people by 2025 and 12 million people by 2030. The natural population growth rate strives to be over 1.1% by 2025, over 1.3% by 2030. According to Mr. Pham Chanh Trung, Head of the Department of Population and Family Planning of Ho Chi Minh City, achieving this goal is not easy, requiring the participation of the entire political system; in which it is important to have policies to make people feel more secure when deciding to give birth and raise children. Sharing the same view, Dr. Nguyen Huu Hung, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, is concerned that if the city does not have a policy change and does not encourage births, it will be very difficult to increase the birth rate.

Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, Director of Hung Vuong Hospital, delegate of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, confided that, like many other women, she had many questions when deciding to have children, such as: do I have enough strength to take care of my child, who will take care of my child after giving birth, will my child be taken care of properly when I am too busy with work?... Therefore, in order for modern women to not be afraid of giving birth, according to her, there should be policies to support giving birth and raising children.

Dr. Le Truong Giang, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Association, said that in 20-30 years, Vietnam's population will be similar to Japan and South Korea today with an aging population structure and a serious labor shortage. Therefore, during this period, Vietnam needs to promote birth incentives, so that couples can decide for themselves the number of children. To boost the birth rate, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Population and Family Planning proposed to exempt or reduce all hospital fees for giving birth for the second time for those with Ho Chi Minh City household registration; at the same time, prioritize support for loans to buy social housing and rent houses for couples who have given birth to 2 children with city household registration. In addition, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Population and Family Planning proposed to exempt or reduce school fees for children under 10 years old (in addition to support for the city's tuition standards, propose to add boarding and lunch fees for students), implement a school milk program...