The cost of having a child

I am a customer service trainer who gave birth to a lovely Tiger boy in September. Having my first child has made me understand why the birth rate in Singapore hovers stubbornly at below the replacement level, despite the many incentives given by the Government.

Even while I was pregnant, I was considering having a second child, as I am already in my early 30s. However, the costs that added up from the time of our wedding through to post-natal and infant care have got me thinking again.

My project manager husband and I married in May last year, and got our Housing Board flat in December. Having worked for around 10 years each, we had accumulated a bit of savings to pay for our wedding and flat renovation.

Then I got pregnant.

The monthly checks at the gynaecologist came up easily to $1,500, of which only $450 was claimable through Medisave. When I gave birth, I stayed in a four-bedded ward in a private hospital and had to pay $4,000 in cash, after Medisave.

During my maternity leave, I had help from a confinement woman for the first month. I paid her $2,200. For the remaining three months of maternity leave, I took care of my child alone.

I sourced for help to take care of my child upon returning to work and eventually decided to place him in a nursery with infant-care facilities. This works out to $850 a month. Within a year, the baby bonuses and Children Development Account top-ups would have been fully utilised.

And I have not mentioned costs like maternity and baby clothes, diapers, vaccinations and all the other necessities that come with having a child.

As it is a personal decision to have a child, I am not lamenting these costs.

However, it would be good if we could move towards the 'French way' - one of the possibilities the editorial notes - with free nursery schools and generous tax allowances. This would definitely help ease the financial burden of families who wish to have more children.

Lee Meng Fern (Madam)