KINGSTON, Jamaica—The Government is preparing a comprehensive response to the country’s declining birth rate that ensures long term-demographic and economic sustainability, says Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton.

He noted that the low birth rate is not only a medical and fertility issue but also a major socioeconomic challenge, requiring coordinated policy action.

“We’ve heard the clinical discussion around fertility… but we have a very critical socio economic challenge that we actually need to pay more attention to,” the minister said.

“That challenge is a declining birth rate below the percentage of replacement rate for a population,” he pointed out.

Dr Tufton was addressing a recent forum on Maternal and Child Health hosted by the Rotary Club of Kingston at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston recently.

He noted that annual births have declined from between 60,000 and 70,000 in the 1960s and 1970s to 40,000 in 2010; 33,000 in 2020; and just under 30,000 last year.

He said with the fertility rate now below the population replacement level, combined with migration, Jamaica’s population could decline over the next decade.

“The reason why it has to be dealt with this way, from a planning perspective, and why we need to encourage more births in whatever way, shape, or form, is because it does threaten life as we know it,” Dr Tufton said, adding that, “If you look at the data, that’s the trajectory, that’s the direction in which it’s going.”

The measures being looked at are policies to encourage child-rearing and family formation, workplace nurseries and childcare support, strengthening maternal neonatal services, expanding community health support, among other things.

Dr Tufton said that discussions are underway with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the fertility centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other stakeholders in the areas of health, labour, social welfare and finance.

He highlighted measures already in place to support maternal and child care.

“We have reviewed, over the last year, the policy and procedure protocol manual around neonatal care… and the obstetrics protocols in order to provide additional training to our health team to give better support,” he said.

“We have also expanded our community health aides and public nurse support in the field through the primary healthcare centres,” he added.

-JIS