Baby Blues...

Just over friday, i had joined meilin, jessie and yuan hwa to visit my ex-colleague who has just given birth early this mth.. all of us were lamenting it was a pity that she wasnt eligible for the recent perks for longer maternity leave.. e garberment backdated the effective date for longer paid-maternity leave to 17 Aug instead of the original 1 Jan 2009. Still, she doesnt qualify as she gave birth on 1 Aug.gee.. wat a waste..

Recently, all over the news are abt the parenthood package. Yeah, doesnt concern me yet but I do have some opinions to point out. The National Day Rally had addressed the problem of Singapore suffering a low birth rate and that Singapore's population will be halved after 2070...

Firstly, this situation came as quite a surprise for me as I tot that i had seen quite a no of young couples who are pushing baby prams ard shopping centres... in fact, i know of 4 friends and relatives who are already mothers or prospective mothers. So how can it be that there is still low birth rate?

So moving a step fwd, one commonality is that most are just having one kid. Yes. Just one. It is found that "Singapore's current low fertility rate of 1.29 - one of the world's lowest - is well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple."
(Taken fr www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_261974.html)

Why is it so then? Some informal chats with my married frens had pointed out that their first child was pretty much a surprise or even a honey moon baby, so it wasnt exactly planned. in fact, this was the case for 3 out of 5 of my friends. They also commented that it was costly to have a child. In fact, costs already started way before they are born, check-up costs, baby necessities etc...after they are born, further monetary costs add on.

meanwhile, I read an article on Sat's straits times-"Want more babies? Allow surrogacy" by Andy Ho, a senior writer fr ST..
(http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Review/Others/STIStory_270883.html)

In his article, he had suggested that Parliament shd legalise surrogacy to boost birth rates. I cant help but think: does surrogacy help (at all) to the situation? Although in his article, he has already pointed out 2 primary concerns, i.e. the legal status of the child and status of the women involved, I find that there is still a heafty price tag that comes with it. That is, the emotions of all the parties involved, especially when this involves a decision that cannot be revoked.

What comes to mind is that:
- Although the mother may show greater concern for the baby considering the amt of efforts put in, there is still the lack of natural bond between the child and mother.
- The surrogate mother may have difficulties relinquishing the rights of the child
- for those instances where the surrogate mother is a close relative; such as in the recent case in Japan where the surrogate mother is also the grandmother, there is this complication of family ties
-whether the surrogate mother is using her own egg vs using an embryo from the mother and artificially inseminated with the father's sperm or using donated sperm

There could be other more issues that may not be obvious now...and my personal stance is that Singapore is just not ready for this. Just not yet.

You may refer to the links for more details on this topic:
Foreign wombs for hire, Aug 17 :
http://straitstimes.com/print/News/Home/Story/STIStory_268975.html
Woman gives birth to grandchild, Oct 15:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6052584.stm