Proposal to increase maternity leave by 1 month: Will women feel secure in having more children?

The Ministry of Health proposed extending maternity leave from 6 months to 7 months when female workers give birth to their second child. At the same time, women who give birth to two children in industrial parks, export processing zones and provinces and cities with low birth rates will be supported to rent or buy social housing.

Proposal to increase maternity leave time when giving birth to a second child to maintain replacement fertility - Photo: NGUYEN HIEN

These are two of many policies proposed by the Ministry of Health to be included in the Population Law to maintain replacement fertility in Vietnam in the context of a record low fertility rate.

Many people believe that the proposal of the Ministry of Health is humane, contributing to improving population quality and protecting the health of mothers and children.

One more month, mothers have more time to take care of their children

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Tran Dang Khoa - Deputy Director of the Department of Mothers and Children, Ministry of Health - expressed his agreement with increasing maternity leave for mothers after giving birth. "This is a practical policy for the health of mothers and children," Mr. Khoa emphasized.

According to Mr. Khoa, in terms of health, if the mother has the conditions, the time to take care of the child will contribute to improving the health of both mother and child. In particular, extending maternity leave by one month also helps mothers to breastfeed their children and have more time to rest.

Sharing with Tuoi Tre, Dr. Mai Xuan Phuong, former Deputy Director of the Department of Communication and Education, General Department of Population, now the Department of Population - Ministry of Health, said that the proposal of the Ministry of Health is not only related to the rights of workers but also has a direct impact on businesses and the economy .

According to Mr. Phuong, for workers, especially female workers, the policy brings positive benefits in helping protect the health of mothers and children.

"An additional month of maternity leave gives mothers more time to recover physically and take care of their children, especially in the first 1,000 days of life - the golden period for children's physical and mental development. This also encourages breastfeeding, creates a comfortable mentality, and reduces pressure when returning to work," said Mr. Phuong.

For businesses, Mr. Phuong believes that the policy helps improve the image of the business. Companies that support good maternity policies often attract and retain good employees, especially in industries with many female employees such as education, health, textiles... thereby bringing long-term benefits to the business.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh, President of the Trade Union of Pearl Global Vietnam Company, supports the proposal to allow female employees who give birth to a second child to extend their maternity leave by one month.

According to Ms. Hanh, female workers need to enjoy many support policies to raise children and ensure their lives. With about 1,400 employees, of which 70% are women, Ms. Hanh said that workers always want more support policies such as renting or buying social housing or discounts when buying essential goods such as cooking oil, laundry detergent, and rice to reduce the burden of spending.

A family participates in a family festival in Ho Chi Minh City - Illustration photo: TTD

Practical policy but needs careful consideration

However, besides the positive impacts, Mr. Phuong commented that the policy of adding 1 month of leave will cause workers to have their work interrupted.

Extended maternity leave can make female workers worry about advancement opportunities, being replaced or losing job skills. Some businesses may even hesitate to hire female workers due to concerns about costs and longer leave.

"Enterprises will also bear financial and human resource burdens. Although maternity allowances are paid by the social insurance fund, businesses are still under pressure to rearrange labor to compensate for people taking longer leave.

This is especially difficult for small businesses with few backup staff. In addition, if there is no plan to recruit or train temporary replacements, work can be delayed," Mr. Phuong said.

Talking to Tuoi Tre, Dr. Pham Quang Nhat, a family planning expert, said: "Women are given 6 months of maternity leave, but many do not take enough time due to economic pressure in the family. Taking too long a leave will cause fear of losing their job.

Therefore, they ask to go back to work earlier by choosing to send their children to grandparents or nursery. Therefore, in addition to increasing maternity leave from 6 months to 7 months, we need to apply many other social welfare policies."

Mr. Phuong said that the proposal of the Ministry of Health is humane, contributing to improving population quality and protecting the health of mothers and children.

However, for this policy to be truly effective, financial support is needed so that female workers do not have to return to work early due to economic pressure. Promoting gender equality, encouraging both fathers and mothers to participate in raising children.

Men share responsibility through paternity leave policies, creating gender balance. Develop public childcare services to reduce the burden on women.

"To ensure feasibility, we also need to calculate options to support businesses with tax reduction policies and support social insurance funds. In addition, we can build a suitable roadmap and test it in some areas before expanding nationwide," said Mr. Phuong.

Illustration: NGOC PHUONG

More policies needed

Speaking with Tuoi Tre, Ms. Tran Thu Phuong - Deputy Head of the Women's Propaganda Department, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - expressed that the federation always supports the policies that the Ministry of Health is proposing to maintain the replacement birth rate.

"The drafting agency needs to have a synchronous calculation of legal documents because the Social Insurance Law 2024 will take effect from July 1, 2025," Ms. Phuong said.

Ms. Phuong also said that there should be many solutions and policies to encourage workers to get married, such as proposing to study increasing the age of children when they are sick to under 16 years old (according to the Law on Children, children are people under 16 years old) so that parents can enjoy sick leave.

The authorities are studying to reduce the mandatory social insurance payment period from 6 months to 3 months within 12 consecutive months before giving birth, surrogacy, asking for surrogacy or adopting a child under 6 months old.

It is recommended that research increase the number of prenatal check-ups for female workers to at least 9 times because in reality, doctors often schedule follow-up visits after 30 days.

In cases where there is an indication from a medical practitioner in a medical facility, employees can have more than 9 prenatal check-ups to ensure normal fetal development instead of the maximum of 5 times, each time not exceeding 2 days according to the Law on Social Insurance 2024.

Male workers are given an increase in the minimum number of days off when their wives give birth normally, give birth to twins or more, or have a caesarean section, and the leave period is extended beyond 6 months instead of within 60 days so that the father can share the responsibility of taking care of the children...

Illustration photo

Experience in promoting birth in the world

According to Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population (Ministry of Health), many current studies also show that the desire to have two children in each family is still popular but not all couples can fulfill that wish. Factors in life greatly influence people's decision to have children.

According to international experience, in terms of fertility, 55 governments have policies to increase fertility, and 19 governments focus on maintaining current fertility.

The main measures include improving maternity leave, paternity leave, job-guaranteed unpaid leave, shorter or part-time working hours;

Bonuses for childbirth, tax incentives, monthly cash subsidies, housing rental and purchase assistance; increased availability of childcare services, childcare cost assistance; improved state support for in vitro fertilization, infertility insurance regulations...

With lessons learned from most countries with low birth rates today, when replacement birth rates have been reached, from a management perspective, Mr. Dung believes that it is necessary to immediately be flexible in policies and intervention measures for birth rates to prevent birth rates from falling too low or too low.

In addition, the desire to have two children in each Vietnamese family is still widespread. Therefore, this will be an important opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of to maintain the replacement level of fertility.

"We need breakthroughs in economic, social, population and family policies to prevent deep and prolonged decline, maintain replacement fertility, prevent labor recession, population recession, and economic growth decline," Mr. Dung emphasized.

The National Assembly is expected to pass the Population Law in 2025.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/de-xuat-tang-1-thang-nghi-thai-san-phu-nu-an-tam-sinh-them-con-20250313083426443.htm