One of the reasons leading to baby busts is late marriages. In 2008, the average age for first-time marriages was 28.4 for brides and 31.1 for grooms. Ten years ago, the average age for brides was 26 and for grooms 29.8. As people get married at an older age, they become parents later in life, or simply opt not to have children.
Statistics also demonstrate that more and more women become mothers when they are over 30. In 2008, the mean age for first-time mothers was 28.9, as opposed to 26.4 in 1998. Women over 30 years of age giving birth for the first time made up 43.8 percent of mothers in 2008, compared with 28.8 percent 10 years ago, a 15-percent increase.
As late marriages lead to late birth, and the later women start to have babies the fewer babies they have, population aging is an unavoidable trend. Crude birth rate, the number of births in one year divided by the total population and multiplied by 1,000, is one indicator of an aging population. The lower CBR figures are, the more serious the population aging is.
According to the latest comparative statistics, in 2007, Taiwan’s CBR was 8.9, putting it among the lowest in the world, only slightly higher than Japan’s 8.6 and Germany’s 8.3. The figure is also significantly lower than the CBR in neighboring Asian nations like South Korea (10.1), Singapore (10.3) and China (12.1).
Moving from statistics to a more personal level, Chang Su-fang, who gave birth to her two sons at age 32 and 36, said in an interview June 25 that if she could choose again, she would not have children. Her reason is simply that kids nowadays are facing tremendous competitive pressure. Besides, the traditional Chinese concept of raising sons to support parents in their old age, which formerly prompted many mothers to have more children, is no longer realistic and is therefore fading out.
Nicole Lin, a mother of two in her mid-40s, said that married friends of her age who are childless are mostly that way due to infertility. However, her younger childless friends in their early 30s are mostly that way by choice. “The younger generation simply wants more quality of life,” she explained. “Their parents tend to give them less pressure to have children than our parents gave us,” she added.
Wu Dan-ru, a famous writer and talk show host, was pregnant with twin girls at age 44. Her case originally encouraged many older women to seek motherhood. However, after she gave birth to a premature infant June 16 at 29 weeks, with the other twin dying nine weeks earlier, the case took on a new light.
Local newspapers reported that obstetricians do not recommend that women of Wu’s age try to follow suit as it is riskier for both the mother and the baby, and the chance of conceiving a child with Down’s syndrome or other complications is higher than for younger mothers.
Lee Su-long, director of the Reproductive Medicine Center at E-Da Hospital in southern Taiwan, pointed out in a telephone interview June 29 that late marriages, double-income-no-kids families, change of life patterns and stress all contribute to the baby bust.
According to Lee, women having in vitro fertilization embryo transfers in Taiwan averaged around 7,000 cases in both 2007 and 2008, and the number is growing slightly. However, 10 years ago, women under 30 were the largest group to receive this procedure; now, it is women between 30 to 35 years of age. Females over 40 undergoing this procedure are also on the rise.
The director cautioned that the best age for women to give birth is from 25 to 35. Less than 5 percent of women over 40 conceive naturally. Even for in vitro fertilization embryo transfers, the success rate is lower than 10 percent. “If you want to become a mom, you have to act as soon as possible,” urged Lee.
Write to Jean Yueh at yueh@mail.gio.gov.tw