Proposal to increase maternity leave for women giving birth to second child

In the draft Population Law, the Ministry of Health proposed not to discipline party members who have a third child or more, along with a series of other policies. The Ministry of Health is currently continuing to propose increasing maternity leave for women who have a second child.

Mr. PXP (Thu Duc City) happily looks at his wife and son who were just born at Tu Du Hospital in early 2024. Mr. P. already has two daughters, this time he has a son - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

Proposal to increase maternity leave

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online on March 10 , Mr. Le Thanh Dung, Director of the Department of Population (Ministry of Health), said that the department has advised the Ministry of Health to submit to the Government a proposal to develop a Population Law and the draft Population Law proposes three groups of policies: maintaining the replacement fertility rate; reducing gender imbalance at birth and bringing the sex ratio at birth to a natural balance; and improving population quality.

The latest draft of the Population Law proposes groups of policies related to the goal of maintaining replacement fertility; reducing gender imbalance at birth and bringing the sex ratio at birth back to a natural balance; improving population quality...

According to Mr. Dung, this draft Population Law still intends to give couples and individuals the right to decide on having children, the time of giving birth, the number of children and the interval between births in accordance with the age, health status, learning conditions, labor, work, income and child-rearing of the individual or couple.

The decision not to discipline party members who have a third child or more is just one of the measures aimed at maintaining the replacement birth rate and avoiding further declines in birth rates.

Many current studies also show that the desire to have two children in each family is still popular, but not every couple can realize that desire.

Factors in life greatly influence people's decisions to have children.

The draft also proposes to allow female workers giving birth to a second child to extend their maternity leave from 6 months to 7 months.

At the same time, create conditions for women who give birth to two children in industrial parks, export processing zones and provinces and cities with low birth rates to receive support in renting or buying social housing.

According to current regulations, the time to enjoy maternity benefits when giving birth, female employees giving birth are entitled to 6 months of maternity leave before and after giving birth.

In case a female employee gives birth to twins or more, starting from the second child onwards, the mother is entitled to an additional month off for each child. The maximum maternity leave period before birth is 2 months.

Many birth promotion policies

Mr. Dung also said that in order to firmly maintain the replacement fertility rate nationwide and prevent the trend of continued low fertility rates in some provinces and cities, the Prime Minister also issued Decision No. 588 approving the program to adjust fertility rates to suit regions and groups by 2030.

Among them, some solutions aim to achieve the goal of firmly maintaining replacement fertility levels nationwide.

That is to encourage men and women to get married before the age of 30, not to get married late and have children early, women to have their second child before the age of 35...

At the same time, build an environment and community suitable for families with young children, such as worker-friendly services: pick-up and drop-off, babysitting, breast milk bank, family doctor...

Plan and build childcare centers and kindergartens suitable for mothers' conditions, especially in economic zones, industrial zones, and urban areas.

In addition, support women during pregnancy and childbirth such as counseling, maternal and child health care, including infertility screening, prenatal and postnatal screening, malnutrition prevention; create conditions for women to return to work after giving birth...

Support and encourage couples to have two children: buy social housing, rent housing; give priority to public schools, support children's education costs; build a model for managing and developing family economy.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/de-xuat-tang-thoi-gian-nghi-thai-san-cho-phu-nu-sinh-con-thu-2-20250310192402775.htm