Each couple should aim to have two children.

Báo Hậu Giang•13/06/2023

(HGO) – On June 13th, Ms. Ho Thu Anh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Development , chaired a conference to launch the communication campaign to encourage having two children, integrated with the provision of reproductive health care and family planning services and improving the quality of the population in Hau Giang province in 2023.

Ms. Ho Thu Anh, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial People's Committee and Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Development, delivered a speech at the conference.

According to the plan, during the three-month campaign (from July 1st to September 30th), the entire province will focus on effectively implementing propaganda and mobilization activities to encourage each couple to have two children, and continue to promote the movement to build models of having two children in communes, wards, and towns. It will also provide quality services related to improving population quality, reproductive health care, family planning, elderly care, pre-marital health check-ups, and prenatal and neonatal screening.

To achieve the goal of increasing the birth rate, the campaign has set several new targets such as : 100% of communes, wards, and towns implementing propaganda and mobilization to encourage young people to marry before the age of 30 and couples who have not had children or have only one child to have two children before the age of 35; 100% of young men and women in need of infertility prevention counseling; 50% of couples of reproductive age experiencing infertility or subfertility receive infertility prevention counseling . Regarding the model of communes, wards, and towns having two children, the campaign sets a target of 40% of registered couples having already had children or being pregnant.

In the population quality improvement package, the campaign has the following targets: 100% of couples receive pre-marital counseling and health check-ups; 93% of elderly people receive health check-ups and 90% of elderly people undergoing health check-ups are screened for diseases; 100% of pregnant women receive prenatal screening and 100% of newborns receive newborn screening; 100% of children at risk of disease are managed and undergo a second newborn screening. In the reproductive health care package: 75% of married women aged 15 to 49 receive gynecological examinations; 95% of women with gynecological diseases undergoing treatment receive cervical cancer screening. In addition, 93% of elderly people participate in family health insurance and 44,782 people across the province are new users of modern contraceptive methods.

The conference was attended by of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Development, along with leaders of departments, agencies, and localities throughout the province.

The conference adopted the campaign implementation plan . Discussions focused on achieving the targets and addressing difficulties related to human resources and campaign funding.

Speaking at the conference, Ms. Ho Thu Anh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Development , expressed her agreement with the campaign implementation plan. The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee proposed : “During the campaign, the Provincial Population and Family Planning Department and the Provincial Department of Health should organize large-scale workshops and seminars to invite experts to advise and share solutions for the target groups of the campaign. Attention should be paid to changing the form of communication; in addition to face-to-face meetings and exchanges, communication should be done through video clips and dissemination on social media. Besides ultrasound and disease screening for those registered to participate in the two-child model, attention should be paid to other target groups of the model. The number of elderly people participating in family health insurance should be updated and carefully reviewed.”

Ms. Ho Thu Anh directed: “Regarding the campaign to encourage workers and laborers to participate in reproductive health care and access services, localities need to pay attention to selecting appropriate times for more effective outreach. For the implementation of Resolution No. 07 of the Provincial People's Council, it is necessary to review the target groups and periodically report on the results, ensuring the effective issuance of policies. Access and supplement information on population movements into the electronic data warehouse to serve the digital transformation of the population sector in the future. For units that faced difficulties with medicines, chemicals, and medical supplies last year, they need to proactively address these issues this year. I request that the Population and Family Planning Sub-Department, the Department of Health, and other units support each other to ensure the availability of human resources, medicines, chemicals, and medical supplies for the upcoming campaign.”