Ahead of Feb 10, the first day of Chinese New Year, Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Mount Alvernia Hospital have opened freshly renovated maternity wards, while Thomson Medical Centre will finish upgrading its facilities in March.
Showing optimism, service providers like confinement nanny agencies and confinement meal caterers told The Straits Times they are ramping up recruitment.
In Chinese culture, the dragon symbolises luck and power. Boys born in the Dragon Year are considered especially privileged and thought to be stronger or destined for success.
The Dragon Year, which occurs once every 12 years in the Chinese zodiac cycle, has historically set the high-water mark for total live births every dozen years in Singapore.
This is even as its lead over other zodiac years continues to shrink a decline that the industry registers as the dwindling influence of zodiac superstitions on young couples.
According to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics, in 2012, the last Dragon Year, 38,641 resident live births were recorded, compared with 36,178 in 2011 and 35,681 in 2013. In 2000, there were 44,765 resident live births, compared with 41,327 in 1999, and 39,281 in 2001.
Already closely watched as a benchmark, the stakes are even higher this Dragon Year after the total fertility rate (TFR) hit a historic low of 1.04 in 2022. The TFR refers to the average number of live births each woman would have in her childbearing years.
Analysts told the local media then that the year was an anomaly, blighted twice over by the unpopular Year of the Tiger and the Covid-19 pandemic, on top of a steadily declining TFR. The imminent Dragon Year was pitched as the better measure of Singapore's demographic prospects.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 22, 2024 من The Straits Times.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 22, 2024 من The Straits Times.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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