Explainer: Why Vietnam encourages couples to have two children before age 35

Speaking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper, Dr. Mai Xuan Phuong, former deputy head of the department of communications and education under the Vietnam Population Authority, said the message 'having two children before the age of 35' should be understood as a recommendation to help people proactively plan their reproductive lives, rather than a mandate or a 'deadline' for women.

Why 35? 

According to Phuong, it is important to understand the meaning of the age-35 benchmark correctly. 

Age 35 is not a deadline for a woman to have children, nor is it an age meant to put pressure on or judge women.

Medically, he said, fertility tends to decline as women get older, egg quality changes, and some risks during pregnancy and childbirth increase.

Therefore, planning to have children while reproductive health remains favorable can help reduce certain risks and improve the chances of pregnancy and safe childbirth.

However, women over 35 can still have healthy pregnancies and babies.

The important thing is to be more proactive about reproductive planning and pregnancy monitoring.

“Age 35 is not a door that closes, but the longer people delay, the narrower the window becomes for having two children as planned,” Phuong said.

If people marry later, have their first child later and then continue delaying their second child, the period available for a family to have children becomes shorter.

This can lead to a paradox: couples may want two children but end up having only one, or even no children, because their childbearing plans have been postponed for too long.

At the macro level, a prolonged low birth rate can alter the size and structure of the population, reduce the workforce, and accelerate population aging.

According to Phuong, the national goal of increasing the birth rate must go hand in hand with individuals’ reproductive autonomy.

The 2025 Population Law, which took effect on July 1, 2026, stipulates that individuals and couples shall decide when to have children, how many children they should have, and the spacing between births based on their age, health, education and employment circumstances, income and ability to raise children, on an equal basis.

“The state should not decide for people how many children they must have or when they should have them. It should create conditions that enable people to fulfill their own desire to have children,” Phuong said.

This is an important distinction between encouraging people to have children and creating a favorable environment in which those who want children can actually have them.

In fact, the Population Law has introduced several policies in this direction.

From July 1, 2026, female employees who have a second child are entitled to seven months of maternity leave, while male employees are entitled to 10 working days of leave when their wives give birth.

The law also provides financial support for childbirth and priority access to social housing for people with two or more biological children.

Worries about raising children 

According to Dr. Phuong, for the message 'having two children before the age of 35' to become a reality, communication alone is not enough. 

He proposed focusing on six areas: housing, childcare, employment, time, costs, and reproductive healthcare.

“For a young couple, the decision to have a child is not just about the amount of financial support they may receive. It also comes down to the question: if we have another child, can we raise that child well, and will our family life be disrupted too much?” he said.

Policies should therefore simultaneously create conditions for people to have children, raise them, and continue working.

The first layer involves reproductive healthcare, premarital counseling, infertility prevention, and prenatal and newborn screening, helping young people understand reproductive health so they can plan ahead.

This should be followed by social housing, childcare centers, preschools and affordable childcare services, particularly in major cities and industrial zones.

There should also be support for jobs, income, maternity leave, flexible working hours and friendly workplaces for people with young children.

Another issue is the changing perception of responsibility for childcare.

“Do not just encourage women to have children. Encourage men to have children, raise them, and share the responsibility as well,” Phuong emphasized.

He said that when young people have stable jobs, suitable housing, good childcare facilities, enough time to care for their children, quality healthcare services and fathers who share responsibility, their desire to have children is more likely to translate into action.