France is also dealing with the birth rate decline. Traditionally defined as a “virtuous model”, the country has gone below the threshold of 700 thousand births, down 6.6% compared to 2023. It is the lowest figure since 1946 and President Macron has announced “a great fight plan” that goes through a contrast to the “great taboo of infertility” and a new regulation of parental leave.
In France, approximately one in four couples wishing to have children are unable to conceive after 12 months or more, a term corresponding to the World Health Organization's definition of infertility. A situation that would concern around 3.3 million French people, according to a report delivered to the French executive in February 2022. «In France, as in all industrialized countries, the increase in infertility is primarily due to the increase in age at which one decides to procreate – explains the report -. In four decades, this age has increased by five years.” Other causes may be due to medical problems (endometriosis, ovarian syndrome for women…), lifestyle (tobacco, alcohol, obesity) or a decline in sperm quality, partially linked to environmental factors.
For what he defined as a “demographic rearmament” plan, President Macron also returned to the idea of introducing a six-month “birth leave” for both parents, on the Spanish model which provides both parents with 16 weeks of compulsory leave for mum and dad.
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