Extend parental leave for those with premature and multiple babies: MP
Member of Parliament Louis Ng fought back tears several times in Parliament on Tuesday (Aug 1), as he talked about his personal challenges in caring for his pre-term newborn twins earlier this year. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Member of Parliament (MP) Louis Ng fought back tears several times in Parliament on Tuesday (Aug 1), as he talked about his personal challenges in caring for his pre-term newborn twins earlier this year.
He was calling for parental leave to be extended for parents who have to face similar situations — to at least cover the time the babies spend in intensive care units, or the entire time that they are in such a unit and a high dependency ward.
Recounting his own experience, Mr Ng said that he went through a “very difficult and painful” period after his twins were prematurely born in February.
The girls, Katie and Poppy, spent about 10 weeks at the Singapore General Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and at the high dependency unit.
“It was an absolute emotional rollercoaster and it was physically draining,” the MP for Nee Soon GRC said. “We were at the hospital every day, watching them progress and then deteriorate, progress and deteriorate, progress and deteriorate.”
He did not use his paternity leave while the babies were in hospital because he wanted to save the days for when they were discharged.
In his heartfelt speech that lasted 20 minutes, Mr Ng also suggested extending parental leave for parents who have multiple babies. These parents have to deal with greater challenges than those with single births, he said.
Last year, the number of pre-term births at 35 weeks or below was relatively low in Singapore, making up about 4.5 per cent of births. Multiple births accounted for 3.0 per cent of all births — with 561 sets of twins and eight sets of triplets delivered.
Although the numbers of these births “are not large”, Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office who oversees the National Population and Talent Division, said that “the impact on each family is significant”.
“For this reason, I agree with Mr Ng that there is scope to consider how we can better support parents with pre-term babies or who have to manage multiple births.”
She added that the Government is “strongly committed” to supporting Singaporeans in their marriage and parenting journey. To support fathers, paternity leave and government-paid shared parental leave were introduced in 2013.
Last year, paternity leave was extended to two weeks. Under the government-paid shared parental leave, husbands are able to use part of their wives’ four-month paid maternity leave, as long as she agrees, up to a maximum of four weeks.
