Sweden, like many other European countries has suffered from declining birth rates for the last several years. However, the fertility rates have risen steadily with the ongoing migration. Recent Studies have found that foreign-born Swedish women had a fertility rate of 2.21 children as compared to a rate of 1.82 children per native Swedish woman. The nation is seeing a baby boom as a record 163,000 asylum seekers were taken in last year alone.
The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported that three families were sent to the city of Turku in Finland to give birth, due to the lack of services during the month of December so far. Presently, only six university hospitals in the country possess the necessary facilities to care for pre-term babies and they are being overloaded.
Swedish Health Minister Gabriel Wikström criticized the local councils for lack of proper planning, he said:
Prospective parents should not have to be sent abroad to deliver their children. I myself have a daughter who was born six weeks early, and know how important that at this stage. This is something we should do within our borders. Government, in this years’ budget has earmarked 500 million SEK ($54 million) to improve maternity care including for staff reinforcements.
On the other and, Finland saw its fertility rates falling to a 150 year low of 1.80 children per women last year. Only 5.5 percent of the total population of Finland is foreign-born which is much lower compared to Sweden where foreign born residents constitute more than 17 percent of country’s population.
