Ca Mau will provide women with a minimum of VND 2 million in childbirth support (Illustrative photo: Hoang Le).
Women in Ca Mau Province will receive a minimum financial payment of VND 2 million (USD 76) for each childbirth under a government programme designed to maintain Vietnam's replacement fertility rate.
Nguyen Tan Luc, deputy director of the Ca Mau Department of Health, said the support is provided under Government Decree No. 168/2026/ND-CP, issued on May 15, 2026, which introduces measures to encourage childbearing.
Under the decree, a minimum payment of VND 2 million (USD 76) is available to women from very small ethnic minority groups, women living in provinces and cities where fertility is below the replacement level, and women who have two children before the age of 35.
"Ca Mau is among the provinces with fertility rates below the replacement level, so women in the province will receive the minimum payment of VND 2 million (USD 76) when they give birth," Luc said.
He added that, in addition to the minimum support required under the decree, the provincial health department is working with other agencies to review available funding. If provincial finances permit, authorities will propose increasing the level of financial assistance.
Ca Mau Province is one of Vietnam's lowest-fertility localities, with a total fertility rate of just 1.6 children per woman.
Provincial authorities attribute the decline in births to a range of factors, including rising childcare and education costs, increasing work and financial pressures, later marriage and delayed parenthood, changing attitudes towards family size, urbanisation and migration, greater female participation in the workforce, improved access to contraception and family planning, and incentives that have so far failed to encourage higher birth rates.
Under its 2026-2030 Programme for Maintaining Replacement-Level Fertility, Ca Mau Province aims to raise its fertility rate to 2.1 children per woman by 2030, restoring and sustaining the replacement level.