Effective investment in family structures needed

The total fertility rate in Malta decreased from 3.6 in 1960 to 1.4 in 2008 (National Office of Statistics). Birth statistics also show a trend for an increase in the average age of mothers at first birth, from 23 in 1960 to 27 in 2008. In the same year, 43 per cent of brides in Malta were aged between 25 and 29. These figures do not auger well for the stability of the Maltese population.

Over the years, I, among others, have been agitating for the state to invest in more effective structures to encourage couples to have more children in line with initiatives long established in other European countries. Sweden is one country that provides generous parental leave: all working parents are entitled to 16 months paid leave per child, the cost being shared between employer and the state. Norway also has similarly generous leave. In Estonia, mothers are entitled to 18 months of paid leave, starting from up to 70 days before due date. In the UK, all female employees are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 weeks of which is paid, rising to 52 weeks paid from April 2010, with the first six weeks paid at 90 per cent of full pay and the remainder at a fixed rate.

Matters are very different in Malta, which is the only EU country where the state does not even share the cost of the 14 weeks paid maternity leave with employer let alone that of the parental leave, which is unpaid and consists of a miserly three months for workers in the private sector.

However, we are, as usual, being "original and creative". We are actually contemplating measures aimed at taking control of a pregnant woman's life to enforce a lifestyle seen as more conducive to the health of the foetus. We are also discussing ways of stopping pregnant women from going abroad just on the off chance they seek to undergo an abortion. Such cases, which are indeed few and certainly do not call for drastic changes in our legislation, are being used by our politicians as an opening to launch a discourse aimed at imposing unacceptable restrictions on women's lives.

The intention seems to be for these proposals to get even tougher and do away with women's rights over their lives. The pre-1993 Civil Code regulating the family that stated that the husband was the head of the family with full authority over the family income and the children seems liberal compared to this discourse.

The borderless society Malta joined on accession to the European Union is making some groups in our society feel so insecure they are over-reacting and failing to realise the full impact of these proposals and their potentially serious effects. How will women in both shaky and stable relationships look on these developments? How will these affect their decision to fall pregnant or refrain?

Women and men in this country need support to set up a family and to welcome new additions, not state interference and impositions. Health issues should be left in the hands of professionals, especially where pregnant women are concerned. Enforced treatment can be traumatic to both mother and child. It can also leave its mark on the partner and the other children, if any. Seeing their parent being treated in such an inhumane manner could condition their whole lives.

What this country needs is for the state not to venture in areas that have already been judged unacceptable by EU standards, but to invest effectively in supporting structures for the family so as to avoid negative situations arising in the first place and in so doing also encourage women to have children for the stability of our nation.