The baby out of reach
By Tan Hui Leng, TODAY Posted: 05 March 2007 1026 hrs

There are no surprises on this score any more — just resigned sighs.

Singapore's fertility woes may well persist if one goes by the results from the Singapore Women's Pregnancy Survey 2007, which revealed that one in four women in the reproductive age group does not intend to have a child.

And when it came to women without tertiary education, this tendency was even higher. Almost half of them — 44 per cent — indicated that they did not plan to have children.

"We didn't expect this," said the principal investigator of the study, Dr Tan Thiam Chye. "Previously, we had thought that it was the higher educated women that did not want children."

He said it was possible that women with lower education had financial difficulties, which made them reluctant to give birth.

The joint study by the South West Community Development Council (CDC) and the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Singapore (OGSS) surveyed 268 female residents aged between 16 to 60 years, staying in the constituencies of the CDC. Of these, 42 per cent were married, the rest were single and 66 per cent had tertiary education.

The majority of women (70.5 per cent) with tertiary education were keen to have children while only 56.4 per cent of women with secondary and primary education wanted children. Their mean ideal age for having the first child was at 27 years old while the mean ideal number of children was 2.3.

"While it augurs well that more tertiary educated women are now contemplating babies, it is worrisome that one in four women does not want any children at all," said Dr Tan on the sidelines of the launch of the People's Association Women's Executive Committee book, Women Empowering Community: 40 Years in Grassroots.

The study also suggests that 31.8 per cent of women with tertiary education — almost a third of them — have had pregnancy-related depression, compared with just 16.4 per cent of those with secondary education.

"This may be due to the stress of adjusting to motherhood for these women who are otherwise competent and often high achievers in other area," said psychiatrist Dr Helen Chen, an OGSS member. Of those who said they did not want a child, 67 per cent cited reluctance to change their current lifestyles as the reason while another 20 per cent quoted financial difficulties.

"The survey shows that women often grapple with a number of often competing demands and desires when considering whether to have children," said the Mayor of South West District, Dr Amy Khor. "Looking ahead, the CDC hopes to work with the OGSS and other organisations to organise programmes and activities that could promote marriage and procreation."

(Taken from Channelnewsasia.com)






Women cite reluctance to lifestyle change as a reason for shunning procreationBy Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 04 March 2007 1816 hrs
SINGAPORE: Reluctance to lifestyle change and financial difficulty - have been cited by women in the South West district as the two main reasons for not having children. Some 270 of them took part in a survey, the results of which were released on Sunday at the district's community event, which also saw Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong help launch a book on women involved in grassroots activities. The findings of a survey on pregnancy issues, carried out over the last two months with the help of the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, showed that having children was not the intention of one in four of the women polled. These women are in the reproductive age of up to 40. The survey also found that more Chinese and Indian women are not considering having children, as compared to Malays. "There's a trend to show that more women in tertiary education are considering pregnancy. We need to a conduct bigger study before we can generalise that this is the sentiment of the current women in Singapore," said Dr Tan Thiam Chye, Principal Investigator, Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society. "We might even consider advising the ministry to conduct a larger scale survey to look into the specific reasons of why women are not contemplating having children," continued Dr Tan. One reason for this may be that they feel more financially-able to support a family as compared to those who have secondary education or lower. Dr Tan added that the survey also showed that while most women were well informed on pregnancy and nutritional supplements in pregnancy, only half of them planned their pregnancies. The survey also looked at whether women suffered from depression during pregnancy - one in five reported having such symptoms. Such findings are significant in the light of recent reports that the fertility rate in Singapore has dropped below the required 2.1 replacement level. The SouthWest Community Development Council (CDC) said it plans to continue working with the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Singapore (OGSS) to conduct programmes to address issues of pregnancy among women, as well as encourage more women to have children. Mayor of the SouthWest CDC, Dr Amy Khor said, "Also to raise awareness about issues or problems that you can face in late pregnancy or pregnancy at a later age and also of course pregnancy-related issues, which are also some concerns that the women express. So today for instance, at the "Shape Up and Feel Great", we have already started free medical consultation for women with the OGSS. "If they want to consult the OGSS regarding health issues and pregnancy related issues and so on, we hope that we'll also do talks on starting a family, about various risks that you may also face if you actually start a family late and also try and allay some of their concerns and fears about having a child, about parenting and so on." Also unveiled at the SouthWest CDC event was the first book on women in grassroots. The book, entitled "Women Empowering Community - 40 years of Singapore Women in Grassroots" traces the development and achievements of the Women Executive Committee (WEC) members. "I think what is important is we hope that this book will raise awareness of the WEC and the public in general about the contributions that women have made in the heartlands. In terms of mobilising, galvanising the women, creating opportunities for them to take part in meaningful activities and helping them to socialise. We also hope that it will spur more women to join us in playing a role in the heartland, play a useful role in the heartlands and helping to motivate more women," said Dr Khor. Over the years, the WEC has seen changes in its programmes along with the evolving role of women. While it started out creating opportunities for home makers to learn useful skills, it now conducts activities that cater to the more affluent women, such as conducting Yoga classes, spa therapy and even career talks. - CNA/yy