Do you know …
On average, a baby was born in Singapore every 11 minutes in
1965!1
The high birth rates stretched facilities at the Kandang Kerbau
Hospital (KKH). Lee Suk Ting, a Nursing Officer, recounted the
situation in 1962: “The number of deliveries in KKH was at its
peak, with an average of 100 deliveries per day. The number of beds
available then fell far short of demand, and many deliveries were
conducted with patients lying on the floor on mackintoshes or on
transport trolleys. Patients in the early stages of labour sat for
long hours on hard wooden benches waiting for a bed.”
2
Nearly all mothers with normal deliveries had to be discharged
within 24 hours. In 1966, the number of deliveries reached a record
high of 39,835 and won KKH a place in the Guinness Book of Records
for the largest number of births in a single maternity facility – a
record it held for 10 years.3
Recognising the potential impact of the high birth rates on the
Republic's limited resources, Minister for Health, Mr. Yong Nyuk
Lin, tabled a White Paper in Parliament in September 1965 and
outlined a Five-year Mass Family Planning
programme aimed at reducing the birth rate from 29.9 per
thousand in 1965 to 20 per thousand in 1970.4
The Family Planning and Population Board (FPPB) was subsequently
established in January 1966 to implement the recommendations in the
White Paper.
5
The national policy then was to provide family planning facilities
to all eligible married women in the 15-44 years age group,
numbering about 180,000. A sum of S$1 million was allocated for the
entire programme.6
Although the programme met with initial resistance, more than
156,000 eventually received family planning services.7
By the end of its third cycle in 1980, fertility rate had declined
to 1.7 children per female population.8
By then, however, Singapore’s economic growth and aging population
meant that it needed to maintain a sizeable workforce. The family
planning programme was revised in 1986 to encourage Singaporeans to
have more children.
http://www.a2o.com.sg/a2o/public/html/etc/07_family.htm
