Senior Reporter-Investigative
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
As the country welcomed eight babies on Christmas Day yesterday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh admitted that the country’s fertility rate is below the international rate.
Speaking with the media at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital, where the country’s first three Christmas babies were born, Deyalsingh said the declining population was a global trend.
“The birth rates in Trinidad and Tobago have been declining over the years. It’s a concern globally. What you’re seeing is declining birth rates among industrialised countries. The more industrialised, the wealthier the country becomes, birth rates start to decline. So, we are now down to less than about 13,000 live births per year,” Deyalsingh said.
He said with women making the decision to delay pregnancies and reduce the number of children they have, it is contributing to the declining birth rate. The replacement rate, he aid, which allows for a country’s population to remain at existing levels, is 2.1 births per woman in a country. T&T, however, has a rate of 1.9.
In keeping with that trend, the first Christmas Day mother, Camille Diaz, said she was done with having children.
Diaz, 21, has a two-year-old son and gave birth to another boy at 12.09 am. The boy, who is yet to be given a name, weighed seven pounds and 13 ounces.
Like Diaz, Latoya Hernandez said she too was only having two children. After giving birth to a boy at 1.36 am, who will be named Alijah Best, Hernandez said now that she has a boy and a six-year-old girl, she is done with having children.
The third child born at Mt Hope was a boy, yet to be named by his mother Daniella Cudjoe. The child came at 2.27 am. Cudjoe was the fifth mother overall, Health Ministry officials said.
The Health Minister said the reduced birth rate was not a reflection of increased abortion rates either. He explained that as countries move away from agriculture-based societies, the need for multiple children to have able bodied people to work the fields decreased.
Deyalsingh also heaped praises on the nurses, who he said implemented policy to the point that for the first time in years, the country had recorded zero maternal deaths.
“In 2023, to date, we have had no maternal deaths. Absolutely none. And that message keeps getting lost in national conversation. We never get the credit for that. But as I say, one bad thing happens and that’s the headline tomorrow. So, I want to credit them with the work that they have done,” he said.
Deyalsingh said the maternal death rates have been steadily declining since 2016, with this year being the first with no maternal deaths. He said he could not recall the last time this was so, adding that just last year there were two maternal deaths which were linked to COVID-19.
“What we are trying to do is to reduce our maternal mortality rates due to known factors, especially patient factors. And what we are also doing is encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children from as soon as possible.”
He added that because of a breastfeeding policy launched in 2020, the breastfeeding rate went from 10 per cent to 95 per cent. He said this was the first step in the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Christmas Day births:
1. At the NCRHA, Camille Diaz gave birth to a son at 2.09 am
2. At the NCRHA, Latoya Hernandez birthed her son at 1.36 am
3. At the SWRHA, Danielle Jarvis gave birth to a daughter at 1.53am
4. At the ERHA, Saffiyah Singh birthed her son at 2.06 am
5. At the NCRHA, Daniella Cudjoe gave birth to her son at 2.27am
6. At the NWRHA, Malini Singh gave birth to her son via C-section at 3.08 am
7. At the NWRHA, April St Rose gave birth to her daughter at 6.51 am
8. At the TRHA, Precious Samuel gave birth to her at 10.35 am.
