AS PEOPLE live longer and retire later, women should consider putting their careers on hold to have children first, said a woman MP.

They will have plenty of time to focus on their jobs later, said Mrs Josephine Teo, an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.

Mrs Teo, who has a son aged nine and twin daughters aged seven, was responding to concerns raised at a dialogue with PAP leaders over the low birth rate, despite national efforts to boost it.

The efforts have ranged from cash to tax incentives, including a parenthood package worth $575million in 2005.

But the increase in the birth rate has been small: There were 400 more babies in 2005 than the year before.

Last year, 36,200 babies were registered, 700 more than those born the year before.

Mrs Teo urged young couples to relook the conventional approach of putting career before children, as lifespans stretch.

'If we think of...85 and beyond being a likelihood, what is the hurry to do the things that can be done later?

'I would arrange my life so that I have more children, start a family earlier, start it sooner, and then when the children are a little bit older, I can put my heart back to work,' said Mrs Teo, a human resources director with the labour movement.

But putting children as a top priority was not an easy decision, she conceded.

Indeed, she and her husband had made a tough call to give up their careers in Suzhou, China, to return to Singapore, so that their families could help with caring for the babies.

Joining in the discussion, East Coast GRC MP Jessica Tan said parenthood was challenging but it was 'easier' in Singapore because of good childcare and health-care facilities, and the proximity to one's family.

Women could keep working after becoming mothers, she said, adding that some young women needed encouragement to believe they could do both.

A general manager with Microsoft, Ms Tan did not stop working even as she gave birth to three children, now aged 16, 14 and 12.

But it was a man who made the audience laugh when he came up with his baby-making suggestions.

Kampong Chai Chee branch activist Lawrence Chong suggested that society should accept single women having babies, with the Government running an institution to look after them.

But Mrs Teo questioned if letting women bring up children alone would set 'the right tone' in society.

Offering his take during the session, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that it was not money, but people's mindset and encouragement from society that would help pull up birth rates.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, chairman of the National Population Committee, was studying ways to boost baby numbers but there was 'no magic bullet', said Mr Lee.

'I think eventually it would have to be personal choices of what you consider important in life...to have children...and to balance that against your work, your career aspirations.'

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