Valentine’s Day campaign targets falling birth rate
AMID THE falling birth rate in Thailand, the Public Health Ministry and related agencies are launching a Valentine’s Day campaign urging “red-cheeked Thai women” to have more babies.
The campaign begins next Tuesday and offers free supplements and advice to women who are preparing to have children.
A box of folic acid and iron supplements and a pregnancy-care brochure will be handed out to women aged 20-34 who have registered their marriage at district offices nationwide, Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said Wednesday.
Women planning to get pregnant should take folic acid and iron supplements once a week for 12 weeks prior to pregnancy to reduce the risk of babies’ abnormality, he said. Women can get the supplements for free at the ministry’s health service centres nationwide.
Health Department chief Dr Wachira Pengchan said Thailand’s birth rate was at 0.4 per cent in 2015 – compared to 2.7 per cent in 1970 – and it could be zero in 10 years.
The authority also found that the average couple only had 1.6 children, which should have been 2.1, he said.