Women should give birth before 30 years old to prevent obstetric and pediatric complications.
(Baonghean) - Decision No. 588/QD-TTg on the "Program to adjust birth rates to suit regions and subjects by 2030" which was recently approved by the Prime Minister at the end of April is receiving public attention. Particularly in Nghe An, with its own characteristics, understanding this decision is important in adjusting birth rates in the area.
Don't get married and have children too late
Nearly 1 year old, Phan L. in Hoa Son commune (Do Luong) is weak and shows signs of epilepsy, so he cannot function normally like his peers. Previously, L.'s mother had given birth to 3 children and all were normal, so she did not know why the last boy born was weaker even though her pregnancy symptoms were not much different.
The only explanation she could give was that she was quite old when she gave birth, over 40 years old, so she might not have been in the best health condition to give birth. In fact, during her pregnancy with her youngest child, she always felt tired and had many times experienced conditions such as joint pain, varicose veins and unstable blood pressure.
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| Treatment for newborns at the Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: MH |
After many years of working in the field of obstetrics and pediatrics, Dr. Hoang Thi Thu - Deputy Director of the Provincial Center for Disease Control said: "When it comes to giving birth, women should not give birth after the age of 30, especially after 35, because at this age, women's health and endocrine activities are not at their most ideal stage. Therefore, giving birth can easily lead to many obstetric and pediatric complications and the health of the newborn is not good, with a high rate of children with fetal structural malformations.
Regarding the age of childbirth, many studies have shown that if a woman becomes pregnant between the ages of 35 and 40, she will have a risk of gestational diabetes 3 times higher than a woman in her 20s, because the metabolism is slower, and the body's ability to stabilize blood sugar also decreases with age. On the other hand, approaching the pre-menopause period, ovulation in women aged 35 and 40 occurs abnormally, leading to a higher chance of multiple pregnancies. This increases pregnancy complications, as well as the health of the baby after birth.
In addition, giving birth after the age of 35 will also be more difficult when many cases have been recorded with placenta previa (the placenta partially or completely covers the cervix, which can cause massive bleeding during normal delivery) or no uterine contractions, fetal heart failure and most of them have to have a cesarean section. In particular, if the mother gives birth after the age of 35, the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, premature birth, and low birth weight will also increase.
Although late childbearing has been warned to affect the health of mothers and children, this trend has recently increased.
The trend of giving birth after the age of 30 in urban areas is often higher than in rural and mountainous areas, because at this age in urban areas, women often have to endure a lot of pressure in terms of work and economy. Therefore, women often have to settle down before thinking about getting married and having children. In addition, recently, many young people tend to get married late, so having children late is inevitable.
Due to the increasing trend of late marriage, the encouragement of men and women to get married before the age of 30 and have a second child before the age of 35 has just been included in Decision No. 588/QD-TTg dated April 28, 2020 of the Prime Minister.
The representative of the General Department of Population and Family Planning also commented on this issue and affirmed that this decision was based on many legal documents, scientific foundations, and practical studies. Notably, for children, the rate of slow neuromotor development also increases with the mother's age.
The main reason is that the older the mother is, the higher the chance that the chromosomes in the egg will stick together, leading to diseases related to chromosomal disorders in the fetus such as Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome...
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| Giving birth at the right age will create conditions for children to develop healthily. Photo: My Ha |
Specifically, the rate of a 25-year-old mother giving birth to a child with Down syndrome is only 1/1,250; 30-year-olds are 1/952, over 35s are 1/378, over 45s are 1/30... For the above reasons, encouraging young people to get married before the age of 30 and women to have a second child before the age of 35 is aimed at getting young people to get married before the age of 30, then have children, to both ensure health, improve population quality, and contribute to increasing birth rates in places with low birth rates.
Continue to reduce fertility to reach replacement level
Decision No. 588/QD-TTg on the "Program to adjust birth rates to suit regions and subjects by 2030" has just been issued by the Prime Minister, aiming to firmly maintain the replacement birth rate nationwide, strive to increase birth rates in localities with low birth rates, reduce birth rates in localities with high birth rates, contributing to the successful implementation of the Vietnam Population Strategy by 2030, ensuring rapid and sustainable development of the country.
Accordingly, by 2030, strive to increase the total fertility rate by 10% in provinces and cities with low fertility rates (on average, each woman of childbearing age has less than 2 children); reduce the total fertility rate by 10% in provinces and cities with high fertility rates (on average, each woman of childbearing age has more than 2.2 children); maintain results in provinces and cities that have reached the replacement fertility rate (on average, each woman of childbearing age has 2 - 2.2 children).
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| Consulting people on reproductive health and family planning issues. Photo: MH |
As soon as this decision was made, many opinions also said that the Government was encouraging young people to marry early and have children early. At the same time, it is possible to have more than 2 children, especially in provinces with low birth rates. However, in Nghe An, the encouragement of having children still needs to be understood correctly and fully.
In fact, Vietnam has achieved the replacement level of fertility and has continuously maintained the total fertility rate (the average number of children per woman of childbearing age) at less than 2.1 children for more than 10 years. However, Nghe An is still one of the 10 provinces with the highest fertility rate in the country (ranked 2nd, after Ha Tinh) and has not yet achieved the replacement level of fertility and the birth rate of the third child or more is still high. Therefore, while the population work of the whole country has shifted from Population - Family Planning to Population and Development, Nghe An is still having to carry out two tasks in parallel.
“With our current fertility rate of about 2.7 children per woman, it is forecasted that our province will only reach the replacement level by 2029. Meanwhile, Nghe An is facing the potential risk of a rapid increase in fertility, because currently for every woman leaving childbearing age, there are 2.5 women entering. In this context, in parallel with the national task of focusing on improving population quality, in Nghe An, reducing the fertility rate to reach the replacement level is still an important task.”
Regarding Decision 588, many other issues were also mentioned, including regulations to ensure exemplary behavior of cadres and party members in having two children, raising children well, and building progressive and happy families.
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| Communication about child marriage for students in Con Cuong district. Photo: PV |
At the same time, the Government requires promoting propaganda, mobilizing behavior change, adjusting and perfecting support and incentive policies...; especially requiring reviewing and proposing amendments to regulations that are no longer suitable for the goal of maintaining a stable replacement fertility rate, especially regulations on handling violations of current population policies... It is believed that these adjustments will also help population work in the coming time to have positive changes and become increasingly closer to reality.
