Making ‘every family has two children’ more than just a slogan in Vietnam

The city's official implementation of a policy to support women who have two children before the age of 35 marks a clear shift in strategic direction.

Although the one-time financial support of VND3 million (US$120) per person is not a large amount, it serves as a significant psychological incentive, especially for young women still hesitant about having a second child.

What matters is not just the money, but the message the policy sends: "We're with you."

Currently, several localities are taking proactive and creative approaches to population issues.

Take Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, for example, they go beyond simply encouraging childbirth by linking population policy with reproductive healthcare and efforts to improve population quality.

The province provides free prenatal and newborn screening, and invests in sex education and adolescent and youth healthcare – a comprehensive, systematic approach.

In Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam, the criteria of "having two children and raising them well" has been included in assessments for cultural family recognition and new-style rural communes. Da Nang City, Ha Tinh Province, and several other provinces have also implemented flexible models tailored to their specific socio-economic development.

However, no matter how good a policy may be, we must acknowledge the reality: having and raising children in Vietnam today is a burden for many families, especially in urban areas.

High living costs, pressure related to housing, education, and healthcare, as well as a lack of meaningful support for women, are all factors that make many couples hesitant to have a second child.

Moreover, the lifestyles and values of younger generations have clearly changed. Careers, personal freedom, and self-development are now prioritized over early marriage and childbearing.

This has led to a trend of late marriage and delayed childbearing – shortening the reproductive window and reducing the likelihood of having two children.

To sustainably maintain the replacement birth rate, we must start by building a society that is friendly to children and families.

Living environments, education, healthcare, and public spaces need to be improved with the family at the center.

Population education, reproductive health, and parental responsibility should be incorporated into the school system, from high school to university, to help prepare the younger generation early on.

The Party and the state must also clearly define maintaining the replacement birth rate as a national priority, on par with socio-economic development strategy.

There needs to be a comprehensive policy framework – from finance, labor, education, healthcare to communication and urbanization. The political system must be reoriented: shifting from "birth control" to "sustainable fertility promotion."

Of course, families make their own decisions about childbearing but society and the state must create conditions that make those decisions easier and more worthwhile.

Only when people feel that having two children is something to take pride in, something that makes life more fulfilling, will population policy truly take root in society.

* The original article in Vietnamese was authored by Dr. Mai Xuan Phuong.