Vietnam

Vietnam is situated on the easternmost side of the Indochina Peninsula in southeast Asia. It is a traditional Vietnamese assumption that motherhood is a woman's sacred right. While this ideal remains, a population control policy, family planning techniques, women's access to higher education and the professions, and population migrations are reshaping postwar motherhood.

The population of reunified Vietnam totaled 53 million by 1978, with 52 percent under 22 years. The postwar agricultural development of the Mekong flood plain, the produce from the established Red River delta in the north, and the marine abundance of the coastal fisheries, combined to provide a surplus domestic food supply. A young population and reliable food source ensured the potential for industrialization, but it also ensured a demographic explosion. In 1987, the state introduced an ambitious population control policy, hoping to slow growth at 1.7 percent. While the fertility rate has dropped only to 1.86 under the two-child program, the 2008 census reported a population of 86 million, which reflects an easing of the earlier growth.

For more than two decades, the state has provided free contraception and abortion on-demand since controls were imposed. Most Vietnamese have accepted the two-child policy, but there is growing speculation of sex selection, especially in the rural areas. Unsubstantiated reports claim gender ratios in three rural districts of the Red River delta already favor males by 20 percent.

The average female baby born in Vietnam in 2009 can anticipate 16 years of education and equal access to the professions. As professionals, mothers must resolve the challenge of childcare. Traditionally, aging mothers unable to work outside the home were replaced by their daughters, while the older woman assumed the care of her grandchildren. Soon the longevity of women's careers and the migration of their children will redefine grandmotherhood.