By Ng Wan Ching

MADAM Zuraida Kamis is a firm believer in family planning and looking after her own reproductive health.

She thinks that for the Government's call for more babies to succeed, all women here should be educated on looking after their bodies.

'Women must spend time to find out about contraception, especially if they are in a relationship. Abortion is not contraception and women risk their reproductive health if they use it as such,' she said.

This modern working mother, who is a bank officer, had her first child when she was 24.

Wanting to bond well with her son, she made sure she made some plans.

These included choosing the hours she wanted to work, organising the necessary help to look after her son and, most importantly, contraception.

Madam Zuraida, now 28, said: 'I know the Government wants more babies and they are doing their best to help us. But I know how I want to plan my family.'

She is now pregnant with her second child. Her husband is a firefighter.

'I wanted them four years apart because firstly, I was concerned about how my husband and I would be able to manage the finances. Then I wanted to bond enough with my first child, spend enough time with him and prepare him to accept a sibling,' she said.

Madam Zuraida chose to work the 4pm to 1am shift as a bank support staff member because this allowed her to spend more time with her 4-year-old son.

She said: 'I get home at 1.45am, go to sleep. Then I wake up at 7am to help prepare him for school. I go back to sleep until 11am, by which time he's back from school.

'I get to read to him, eat with him... until about 2.30pm, when I have to start getting ready for work.'

If she were to work from 9am to 6pm, her son would be almost ready to go to bed by the time she gets home from work.

'I wouldn't get to see him much during the week. But when the second one comes, I will go back to working normal hours first and see how to manage from there,' she said.

Contraception and fertility

She also chose a contraceptive that suited her, an intra-uterine system (IUS) Mirena which acts like a contraceptive by thinning the womb lining to prevent sperm implantation.

'It requires one insertion and it can work for up to five years,' said Madam Zuraida.

Her obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Christopher Ng, said that it is a myth that going on contraception will reduce a woman's fertility. (See report below.)

'Studies have shown that modern pills and IUS do not affect fertility. Once a woman goes off the contraception, her fertility returns almost immediately,' he said.

Such was the case with Madam Zuraida.

She had her IUS removed in December, and by March, she was six weeks' pregnant.

'That means she conceived in February,' Dr Ng said, 'two months after going off contraception.'

She is now 28 weeks pregnant and happy with the Government's recent announcement of the four-month maternity leave.

'It will be of great help to me. And the extra baby bonus will be handy,' she said.

But none of the incentives will move her to have her next baby sooner. 'If we decide to have a third child, it will be in another four years. I feel that is the right amount of time to have to 'space out' the ages of my children,' she said.

Hence, after her second baby is born, she is going back to Mirena.

'It worked well for me,' she said.

This story was first published in The New Paper on Aug 30, 2008.