A small French city is to supply expectant moms €1,000 from subsequent yr to offer beginning on the native maternity ward in a bid to put it aside from closing.
The initiative from January 1 comes as beginning charges dwindle nationwide, and countryside hospitals more and more shut their maternity models.
The labour ward in Saint-Amand-Montrond in central France is amongst round 20 within the nation that doesn’t meet the legally required 300 births a yr to remain open.
Management initiatives simply 226 births on the ward by the top of the yr.
READ MORE: Does France actually have the best beginning fee in Europe?
Councillors late Thursday accredited the plan to supply future moms vouchers price €1,000 to spend at native companies in the event that they agreed to deliver their baby into the world within the city, as an alternative of travelling to a much bigger hospital.
“We’re not paying ladies to have infants, we’re giving cash to ladies who’re already pregnant and determine to offer beginning in Saint-Armand,” right-wing mayor Emmanuel Riotte instructed AFP.
He mentioned moms must are available in for prenatal check-ups first.
“Of course difficult births must be redirected to a specialised hospital, as has been executed for many years,” mentioned the mayor of the city of round 10,000 residents.
But some medical doctors are in opposition to the thought.
Four physician unions — representing anaesthesiologists, obstetricians and emergency physicians — have warned sufferers shouldn’t be selecting the place to offer beginning solely based mostly on financial compensation, warning of the danger in case of issues.
“When a maternity ward is threatened with closure, it is not for financial causes however for security causes,” they mentioned this week in a joint assertion.
Anne Wernet, of the nationwide anaesthesiologist union, instructed AFP that rural maternities, which frequently had bother attracting certified employees, ought to be closing within the curiosity of moms and newborns.
In small countryside clinics, “nothing occurs for a very long time and when there’s an issue, there isn’t any one there to take care of it correctly”, she mentioned.
But native politicians view hospitals as key job suppliers.
In Saint-Amand-Montrond, the maternity ward employs 34 folks out of 675 working for the hospital and nursing residence.
The variety of maternity wards has dropped by round a fifth up to now decade, to 457 in 2023.
The decrease home of parliament earlier this yr backed a invoice to cease the closure of rural obstetrics clinics, however the senate nonetheless has to look at it.
Fertility charges are in decline throughout the European Union, together with in France.
But ladies in France on common gave beginning to 1.6 kids in 2023, the second-highest fertility fee within the bloc after Bulgaria, in keeping with EU statistics.
