How Singaporeans grow healthy babies?

Open Question
Should we also “turn off the lights” to help boost Singapore’s low birth rate?
South Korea's health ministry, which is charged with boosting the nation's low birthrate, is turning off the lights in its offices once a month to encourage staff to go home early and make more babies. The ministry said in a statement Wednesday the switches will be flicked at 7.30 pm every third Wednesday in the month to "help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing".

Singapore is facing a similar situation and the government is looking to encourage more matchmaking companies to be formed.

Is this another solution for Singapore’s low birth rate and why?
5 days ago

Not sure if it will help. I think encouraging families and couples to spend more time with each other is good. Also to encourage people to have children, have jobs that are family friendly better facilities.

Also the cost of living cheaper so people feel they can afford kids. There are likely to be many reason and maybe they should look at the reasons to try and solve the problem
5 days ago

I am not so sure matchmaking companies will help because Singapore cost of living is so high. You will need to earn above 3k in a single household in order to support 2 kids. Even if we want to have more babies, the thought of the daily expenses will scare us away.
5 days ago

Yes yes, in fact there should be a total power cut and there is no television and no internnet no work great
just like the great chicago blackout and then 9 months later baby boom.
5 days ago

Can the government give further subsidy for IVF?
Source(s):
http://www.infertilityspecialistnewyork.com/in-vitro-fertilization-manhattan-new-york-ny.htm
5 days ago

Low birth rate is due to the high living standard of Singapore.

Stuffs are getting more expensive but the increment of salary remain so low.

Prices of houses are increasing due to the booming of foreigner migration.

So new couple have hard time to commit to a new home.

People with low education are hard to progress though they have the experiences and if these people were to change job, salary are expected to decrease alot.

Also the advancing of technology eg. facebook are tearing families apart.

People are more westernise and more open up to intimate relationship.

Asian still unable to accept as most asian are more conservative.

Ladies are now more highly educated and tends look for a better "choice"
5 days ago

This is NOT a long term measure to boost Singapore's low birth rate.

There are several policies that do NOT encoureage families to have more children.

1) Smaller HDB flats are being built

2) ERP on the CTE is extended to 10:30pm to encourage people to stay away from home and go home later
5 days ago

This is just a symbolic move that is not based on the human body clock.
Can every women staff be fertile on the same day?
Look at our 5 days work week for teachers. Are they able to finish their work within the five working days. Many have to leave for work in the morning at 6:30am and reach school at 7am, they have to work till late evening. Some evenings, they have meeting starting at 6pm. Many have to burn midnight oil to catch up with lesson plans, marking and extra projects.
With these type of work expectation, how can we have work live balance?
5 days ago

You're insane, right?

SINGAPORE IS OVERPOPULATED ALREADY

Explain why if there is a population crisis, the governenment keeps clearing land to build more HDB flats? The amount of open spaces and rural areas are shrinking rapidly in case you people are blind.

20 years ago - 3 million
now - 5.5 million
20 years later - 9 million?

We cannot support this booming population and rising prices, not to mention the increasing traffic jams.
Source(s):
COMMON SENSE AND THE CENSUS BOARD
5 days ago

i think, more subsidy for pregnancy package plan, hospitalisation plan, baby's vaccine and more deduction from medisave will be better.

think most ppl hold back the making baby plans are due with financial difficulties. if government can help to subsidy those plans, etc, think will attract more ppl and maybe they willing to have more babies too.
5 days ago

Provide free education & healthcare benefits like the countries in Europe. Public facilities...esp transport should also be subsidized.

As the country develops, the cost of living will definitely increase, so the least our gov can do is to help lighten the load!

I'm sure the gov can do this since they are incurring so much losses in investments.

With so many expenses associated with raising a kid, how is the birth rate going to increase. I'm sure the gov knows that its all about the money & cents! A long term plan to lower the costs is required...not the short term perks like baby bonus.

At work, the government can promote a balanced worklife & flexibility in working hours more aggressively. Sg is a hi-tech country with developed tele-comm, comms network & infrastructure...so its easy to work from home.
5 days ago

But, it seems like there is a portion of people in certain part of singapore got to pay first in order to go home to make babies. So, how do those people go home earlier to make babies?
5 days ago

I think the govt made a mistake in the 70s asking people to stop with 2 children. Now we are feeling the heat.The under developed and developing countries like Brunei, Indonesia, India, Malaysia have no problem with their birth rate - they are also Asian countries like us. So the underlying difference is the very costly standard of living, average wages for long hours of work, the immense rat race every Singaporean is expected to run or else be left behind, etc....Women are expected to work to meet the bills at the end of the month. So there's no time for fun. There's also no one to look after the kids.

I have also spoken to friends who aren't married even though they are eligible. Friends who are married but not wanting kids even though they are quite well-off. They claim it's not easy bringing up kids in Singapore.
5 days ago

Singapore's pace is too fast and competitive. Moreover, people nowadays are looking at whether they can afford luxury and extra classes for their kids. If not, they won't want to give birth. Or rather, they max give birth to 1 and devote all time and resources and love to this one kid.

It is not enough if only 1 company or building practice this. If this can be a nationwide exercise, it would be more feasible. But then again, they might bring work home too...
5 days ago

The birthrate here can never be boosted. Numerous reasons can be given why, but if someone decides not to have children, it's practically impossible to change their decision. Every single country (except for France) failed in their bid to raise birthrates. And the amount given for Baby Bonus is not encouraging at all. It costs upwards of $200, 000 to raise a child here till university; and we expect $4000 - $6000 to incentivize people to procreate. You got to be kidding me!
5 days ago

definately..
i myself am having issues in my own matrimonial home wif my husband. my suggestion will be instead of lights off singapore should make it compulsory for the citizens to be OFF on saturdays. it will allow and encourage more family committed times and give couples like myself and my husband more bonding time. well the gynaes have adviced people like us who are tying to conceive to have calmness and not pressure when intending to conceive. this will really help given the typical lifestyle of singaporeans today. plss help
5 days ago

Alarming decline in birth rate is obviously a problem linked to the current and perceived life environment in terms of livelihood, the living environment, etc.
Generally, even the animal kingdom is shrinking in population in an alarming rate.
Here, in Singapore, when the government is urging procreation, the people has little or no time or mood for recreation due to the harsh and demanding work life and environment.
A real example is the company I am now working in, which is considered quite a big company in name, has changed from 5 full working days to a 6 days work week with more overtime.
Couples are generally working adults, and the employers are doing great disservice to enhance healthy work hours, and with the pressure from all sides of life, even ants would cease to procreate.
One solution is to have the influx of foreigners (quality people of of course) as the population here is too small and the diversity of people in terms of attractiveness is extremely limited due to the genes perhaps.
5 days ago

I think its the way families are not earning enough to feed themselves,so when it comes to children it becomes another burdern. Even some work long hours to have better pay but there will always be no time to work. Example: If a guy doing retail sales 11am - 9.30pm one day off a week,how many times or how many hours u gonna see yur kid? So its all about getting short hours job but maintening a better pay all these work in a fast pace country its bringing down the birth rates. Or better the incentives when u have a child?
5 days ago

even we 'turn off the lights' early also i guess it didn't work here in singapore cause having babies in singapore not cheap, everything is so expensive now. our baby bonus not enough.
5 days ago

We don’t need to blame foreigners here my friend. Look around you a lot of foreigners owns business here, and we need visitors and tourist so we can survive…we have Universal Studio just to start this means we invite visitors investors etc…..but have seen the news south Korea has to build bigger Universal studios in whole Asia to invite foreigner….if all this foreigners go back home to their country…how are we? We don’t have natural resources. ..
5 days ago

I would think that if similar system applied to Singapore, it would still be ineffective. As others have suggested, Singapore's standard of living is quite high compared to many countries in Asia. Although it has the highest economic growth in SEA, many of its population still struggling just to fulfill their basic needs, not to mention the cost to bring up children. This is partially due to the wide gap that the rich people had with the 'average' people.

Also, stop complaining about foreigner as well... they are already super under-paid, and yet they still diligently doing the jobs that most Singaporean would not dare to take, eg: collecting garbage, construction worker, maids, etc etc... These people made up most part of foreigners in Singapore while professionals' foreigners proportion are still lesser than Singaporean. So, why the discrimination? it is just illogical. In fact, if Singapore would ban all foreigners from entering Singapore, it would really stunted Singapore's economy as well as making life more difficult, no one wanted to work as construction workers, no 'maintenance' workers, no maids, etc etc...

Another reason that i stood for foreigners is that some of these people are putting their money to build businesses in Singapore, thus directly helping Singaporean to have more job opportunities. We are all should be grateful instead of complaining about them. It is true however, not all foreigners had these abilities, but that is no reason why we should discriminate them.

I had a bit of different opinion in the cause of Singapore's low birth rate beside high living expenses. Many of us as we realized are constantly bombarded with the image and dreams of success and making more and more money with more freedom and luxurious lifestyle, pamper yourself, etc.... These factors could brought about a very strong mindset to be childless, as no child=more money to spend on self. Climbing up corporate ladder is much more important than family values in reality despite of the recent news that shows Singaporean value more time with family. Money first, family second.

And, if i may add, the commitment for married couples are getting more and more worrying. Divorce rates are increasing with STI among teenagers increased as well. I cannot blame the effect of globalization that brought about 'westernized' culture or 'liberal' mindset. However, i think government should impose the right values for the society about commitment in family, bringing up children to its fullest potentials, NOT only about how to do safe sex! These could be incorporated in school as well.
5 days ago

Turn off the light? Hmmm...try harder..it will only affect productivity (= make more money)... I cannot imagine people saying you need a household income of at least $3K to feed 2 children. Erhm...I am having problem just feeding 1 with a household income of more than $8.5K. Lol.. Well, ever since we are born here, our mission is to earn more money, contribute more to the economy. Why bother to have more children? We will cause alot of harm to our future generation.. Don't you agree? Just look at the housing... HDB 4-rm may cost you S$1 mil in 10 years time.... You want them to be like you? Work to pay off the housing loan? Think again fellow mates....

A better alternative is to train up all the foreigners to take over the laborious tasks we are doing and make sure they are competitive and give them no off days. Welcome them gracefully so that they can take all our jobs and we just let them do all our work while we enjoy the fruits of the hard work... In this manner, whatever we use or want, shall be make free.. Let's say we have a maid shared amongst 4 households, in this way, we ensure foreign workers are highly productive...

Singaporeans' roles would be just ensuring we develop policies to make sure these foreigners work hard to generate more income for us all. Foreign families are welcome to our country but they must work hard for us in return we will give them food and housing. In this manner, we can concentrate on tackling this greying population.

In this manner, it will help us create more babies given there will be more quality time between family members and we do not need to worry the finances part as everything will be taken care of and we just concentrate on our role to make more babies while the foreign workers continue to work for us. Won't this be ideal for all Singaporeans? Lol...a dream that will never be fulfilled....
5 days ago

should 'shut down' all the internet access, give more promotion on movie tickets for couples & families, give more promotion price for outdoor activities (encouraging people interact DIRECTLY with each other & ties the families more closed to each other).

people nowadays spend too much time surfing & neglect the family which they should spend more time with.
5 days ago

Singapore is in a fast pace environment and not able to multi task will get left behind or regards as no capability. Therefore too many a times people will have to work even harder than those around them to prove a point.

Where working hours got extended and even brought home to slog it through the night so that the reports will be ready for presentation.

The cost of living is rising on the uptrend and soon enough we will be like Hong Kong and Japan, with all these single/low income family/couple how to make more babies.

I feel if government wishes to boost the birth rates they should give 50% subsidy for first Child (90% - 100% subsidy on education, hospital, healthcare for the second or third child)

I believe those who can or are thinking about it will make time to make it happen since the government is supporting the heavy bills especially the healthcare and education why not?
Anyway these are my views on the topic
5 days ago

What nonsense. There are already too many people in this world.
5 days ago

I don't know. Though South Korea's policy looks funny at first sight, taking into account our forefathers give birth to more kids than people nowadays, maybe less night entertainment or work activities will really encourage an increase in childbirth.
5 days ago

do think if no foreigners here, this country will survive.. all the hospital, companies have foreign talent to help ur country,, so be thankful.... now you can start making babies so in the future you don't need foriegn talent...
5 days ago

to have more children is one thing, can you afford to pay for their education and up-bringing. singapore is not a cheap place to live to survive. you can encourage couple to have more than one, end of the day who suffer to carry the burden , not the country but yourselves.
5 days ago

Who in the hell likes to stay in office after office hour rather than join their family member in front of the dinner table or TV? Or people working in Singapore don have that much of family value? Bosses don giv a crap about low birth rate as long as u work harder to get him more income and can always bring in more "foreign talent"
Working late is a culture that Singaporean practice. If you don work late u don even have a chance to get married/family...not to say giving birth to a child.
If government encourage us to turn off the lights earlier...this will giv our boss another good excuse not to hav increment...
5 days ago

Singapore living is so high how to support many kids. Everything is $$$. I only have one kid, but I am pretty tight already. Having a 2nd kid will squeeze me dry, so how to have 3rd kid?
5 days ago

The Anti-Vaccination Movement Worldwide

The anti-vaccination movement worldwide

In the beginning there is no vaccination program.
Then it was started by a group of enterprising scientists who convinced the doctors and politicians the need for population vaccination for better longevity. Filthy lucre charlatans.

The anti-vaccination movement is no longer a cult.

It may surprise you to know that about one-third of the four million babies in the United States and Canada and other countries worldwide every year remain unvaccinated at age two. this "failure to vaccinate," as it is termed by vaccination proponents, is largely due to concerned parents, some are doctors themselves, who, after considerable personal research, reviews, consciously choose to forgo or change how their own children receive medical vaccinations.

Authority figures in the medical profession and the government claim that such decisions are based on dangerous erroneous conclusions, on ignorance, poverty, conspiracy paranoia, and constitute a hidden form of child abuse.

Today, the anti-vaccination movement is no longer a cult. led by a new wave of respected scientists and health care professionals, the unvaccinated population is expanding at a remarkable rate. many popular books have been written on the subject, including the shocking best seller "The Medical Mafia" by one Dr.Guylaine Lanctot (here's the key Inc., 1995) , a brave Canadian physician who lost her medical license in Quebec for daring to advise the public against conventional immunizations.

While freedom of speech and expression may be enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it does not, apparently, apply to the medical profession.

I am not novice in this medical field and the following details are not intended to sway your personal opinion one way or another about conventional vaccinations. They will, however, prove and provide information that will clarify why natural alternatives may be preferable to conventional vaccinations. I am mainly concerned about the safety of vaccines in use.

As a physician, it is part of my training and belief that it is better to do nothing than to do harm. And in the case of vaccinations, i question whether the benefits really outweigh the presumed risks, so-called.

While much has been written criticizing medical vaccines, there has never been a book/blog about reasonably safe and effective alternatives. Try Healthy Wealth blog-site if you care http://theinnozablog.blogspot.com

As you will soon read, there is a great deal one can do to protect against infections disease with hydration, natural nutrition, natural vitamins, fresh herbs and common sense. Much attention has been placed on supportive scientific documentation for these alternatives, and readers worldwide are encouraged to look up the many references provided so as to more fully understand these options.


Many, myself included, question the ethics and wisdom of sacrificing even a small number of children in the belief that society will be free of an ever-expanding list of infectious diseases. A growing body of anecdotal and scientific evidence indicates that vaccines may not be as safe or as effective as claimed .

In fact, studies are increasingly pointing to the conclusion that vaccines represent a dangerous (DANGEROUS) assault on the immune system, leading to autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, lupus, juvenile onset diabetes, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as previously rare disorders like brain cancer, childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), autism and asthma.

If you haven't made a firm decision about present vaccinations practice, I strongly recommend that you read what various experts have to say and formulate your own conclusions. Do not rely solely on the advice of your doctor(s), but do ask your doctor(s) about the risks and possible side effects, and then complement this information (source from http://theinnozablog.blogspot.com ) with what has been written on this subject.

Why many people Say 'No" To Vaccinations . . .

The greatest threat of childhood diseases lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunization. - Robert Mendelsohn, MD

Threats, admonitions and medical ostracisms have, to date, failed to win back the millions opting out of the medical vaccination paradigm. However, anyone who decides against vaccinating their children is going against conventional medical wisdom and is likely to hear a message that goes something like this :

"The Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are not aware of any alternative methods to safely and effectively prevent these serious infectious diseases long term. Some individuals and groups propose that 'natural' substances that 'boost' a child's immune system are an alternative to vaccination. however, many people with healthy immune system have died from diseases that could have been prevented with vaccination . . . A child left unvaccinated is left to battle a disease organism without the help of the antibodies that the child's immune system would have developed through vaccination. While many unvaccinated children will survive such a battle, many will do so only after suffering severe complications that may lead to disabilities.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Academy of family Physicians, and the CDC recommend that children routinely be vaccinated against ten serious diseases." (compiled from CDC and FDA documents, 1998)

These are strong words. yet, for a variety of reasons they are unheeded by millions. Medical vaccines have come under fire in the past decade. A growing number of informed parents and doctors worry that vaccines can cause illness and premature death in numbers much larger than generally acknowledged by pediatric and government authorities.

Increasingly, parental fears are fueled by the fact that the US government has set up the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which in the first five years paid over half a billion US dollars for vaccine-related injuries and deaths. High time we should have one such agency in our country Singapore to seriously investigate vaccine-related injuries and deaths among our community.

Added to this concern are government figures showing that less than 10 percent of doctors even report vaccine problems. Do parents really know if the benefits of immunization outweigh the risk?

Nitrate and human health

People are worried because of what they are told nitrate can do to them or their children. There are two(2) commonly cited ways in which nitrate is said to pose a threat to humans : blue-baby syndrome and stomach cancer.

Blue-baby syndrome
It takes a lot of nitrate to poison a baby. Even if babies were fed water with 100 ppm (parts per million) of nitrate - twice the recommended limit - they would come to no harm. So why has there been concern over nitrate and babies?

In fact nitrate has caused the deaths of babies who were fed on milk powder made up with water from wells that had very high levels of nitrate. The circumstances were rather exceptional. The babies turned blue and died because of excess nitrate.

The last case of blue-baby syndrome in Britain was in 1972, and the baby's life was saved. (Note:Blue-baby syndrome is known as well-water methaemoglobinaemia in the USA). The last fatal case of the disease was in the 1950s. Those at risk were babies in rural areas whose feed was made with water from wells where it was later discovered the level of nitrate could be as high as 500 ppm, ten(10) times the level set by the World Health Organization.

In addition the water-from-well was contaminated with bacteria which could have exacerbated the problem by causing more nitrate to be produced in the baby's physiology intestines.

If we follow the fate of a nitrate ion when it enters the human body we can understand why babies were at risk. The nitrate itself is harmless, and most nitrate passes easily through.

It is the nitrate that undergoes a chemical change, chemistry reaction with well-water, which does the damage. Bacteria are to be blame, and these remove one of the nitrate's oxygen atoms and so turn NO3 into nitrite, NO2.

Bacteria in our gut produce about 5 mg of nitrite each day. Microbes in our mouths begin the process, which is continued in our stomach and intestines. White blood cells, which engulf and break down invading organisms, also make nitrate and nitrite.

They use the amino acid L-arginine as their source of nitrogen, and they are stimulated to make nitrate by carbohydrate from bacteria.

White blood cells are thought to produce nitrate and nitrite as inter-mediates in their production of nitric oxide. This molecule (combination of few atoms is called molecule) has several uses in human body, from relaxing muscles in our arteries to causing erections of penis in men.

It may also be used in the fight against infection. But there can be too much of a good thing, in turn cause toxins, and this is true of nitrite. This delicate balance can be easily maintained by the organicity of the nutrients and the presence of distilled water.

Human first line of defence to cope with a surplus of nitrite since it could occur quite naturally is vitamin C, which can snatch another oxygen-atom from nitrite and so convert it into nitric oxide. With this understanding, all of us, adults and babies should have many kinds of fresh fruits which are naturally come with sufficient various vitamins (vitamin C being one of them) , and minerals and natural enzymes and distilled water.

We cannot destroy all the nitrite in this way, and some escapes.It then targets certain of the human body's metals, indeed it positively seeks them out and clings to them very strongly. In our bloodstream nitrite attach to the iron atoms at the heart of haemoglobin, the molecule which carries oxygen atom from the lungs to where it is needed to generate energy.

When nitrite meets haemoglobin it blocks its active iron site and turns it into methaemoglobin. Still we need not worry because we have enzymes to deal with this, and these remove the nitrite and so free the haemoglobin.

All these things and process happen in babies as well, but in relation to their fluid intake, water, a baby's blood volume is much smaller that that of an adult. Now I hope you see the point of the water-cure protocol have to use each individual body weight (every 1 kilogram need at least 31.42 ml of water)to decide the amount of daily water-quota intake. An excess of nitrate, and the nitrite that is formed from it, will stress their metabolism much more severely. And water shortage in the baby's daily diet will worsen this condition further and faster.

Up to 2% of a normal person's blood may be in the methaemoglobin form. If the level of methaemoglobin exceeds 10% we begin to suffer, and our skin turns a blue-grey. This is what happened with some babies, and hence the name 'blue baby' for those suffering this condition.

When the level reaches 40% the baby's life is in danger,and there have been a few rare cases of bottle-fed babies dying. Boiling the water to make up a formula feed does not remove the nitrate, but concentrate it.

Breast-feeding is still the best way to nourish and protect a baby, but there is no threat to babies fed on formula foods if the level of nitrate in the water used to make them up is below 50 ppm, the legal limit. WE need nitrate-free water to put an end to all worries about blue babies, but until then, let's do our part for the babies, encouraging mother breast-feeding the nature way.


Stomach Cancer The threat comes not from nitrate itself, which is not a cancer-forming chemical on its own, nor from nitrite which is also not a carcinogen.

The real threat comes from nitrosamines, which are a group of known potent carcinogens.Dimethylnitrosamine is the most common nitrosamine and is a powerful carcinogen. It is detectable in several foods, although levels vary :
Food (Nitrosamine/ppb, parts per billion,which is the same as millionths of a gram per kilogram )

Hot dog (0-84);
Salami(10-80);
Bacon (1-60);
Smoked fish (4-26);
Fried fish (1-9);
Cheese (1-4).

Nitrosamines are extremely reactive and will attack almost any other molecule, including DNA, and this is why they are so dangerous.

Nitrosamines are very reactive molecules and the danger is that they will reach the heart of a living cell and attack the DNA. If this happen the damage has to be repaired. This is a relatively simple job for the cell, compared to damage done by more dangerous chemicals - free radicals.

If the cell's defences are overwhelmed, then the repair job may not be perfect. If this happens we have a potentially cancerous cell. Once this cell starts replicate itself, and not to be recognized as alien, we are in trouble. Fresh fruits and fresh green vegetables quickly rendered harmless by molecules such as vitamin C and E, and these also protect us against nitrosamines.

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