« Future Birth 2007 | Main | Home birth guidelines »

How to increase the birth rate

I am back in the UK at present, with several workshops planned for this short trip. Just before I left Australia there was quite a bit of discussion about the rapid rise in our birthrate and also the timing of many of these births.

For some years now, Australia has been doing very well economically. Very low inflation, low unemployment, affluent lifestyles and high levels of education have encouraged many women to work on their careers and as a result many are delaying having babies until they are in their 30s (other western countries have similar trends). Our relatively low birthrate has also been flagged as a possible problem for the future – who will support the ageing population in years to come?

Our Treasurer came up with a plan to solve this problem. The Government brought in a “baby bonus” of $3,000 that was to be paid for every baby born after June 1, 2004. The Treasurer then began exhorting women to have three babies – “one for you, one for your partner and one for the country”. The incentive of a cash payment, no strings attached, seems to have done the trick and we are experiencing a large jump in the birth rate – another baby boom.

Interestingly, a new report has revealed that in order to be eligible for this “baby bonus” many women delayed the births of their babies by two or more weeks. Holding off until after June 1, 2004 was a good move worth money to many families. Most of these women were planning caesareans or else were refusing inductions before their due dates. There was a suggestion from the Australian Medical Association that some women might have delayed too long and put their babies’ lives at risk!

On July1 this year, the baby bonus will be increasing to $4,000 per birth. The question being asked this week is, how many women this time around are going to put of their caesarean or induction in order to make more money? July 1 also falls on a Saturday in 2006, a traditional day for obstetricians to be playing golf (or whatever) but this year might see them hard at work in the operating theatres, valiantly supervising births that have been delayed an extra week or two. I wonder if they will charge extra for this “after hours” service and if this will be paid for out of the extra baby bonus?

Posted by andrea at June 22, 2006 11:22 PM