With the issue of marriage and babies on the national radar, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged that more help needed to be given to working women who also have families and children to care for. At the same time, he also called on Singaporeans to place more emphasis on family and marriage.

To achieve the former, child-care leave will now be stretched to give either parent six days of child care leave in a year. In addition, parents can look forward to having a one-week unpaid infant care leave per year, until the child turns two. He also pointed out that family-friendly employers will play a big role in fostering an environment that allows for employees' work-life balance, such as providing nursing rooms, telecommuting and work flexibility.

Plans are also in the pipeline to increase the length of maternity leave to 16 weeks, with the additional four weeks also to be paid for by the government. At present, women are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave, with four weeks being paid for by the government. PM Lee has suggested that women need not use up all their weeks of leave at the beginning.

Monetary incentives, such as an improved baby bonus for first-time parents and more tax incentives to encourage mothers to work, are also in the works. Families with four or more children can also look forward to the same incentives such as tax reliefs, childcare subsidies to be extended to the fifth and subsequent child.

Help will also come in the form of early childhood care. The prime minister has promised more childcare centres that are affordable and of higher quality. This means parents can expect more subsidies for each of their children attending pre-schools. Children attending kindergarten will be able to look forward to an improved syllabus and better run institutions with higher quality environment, so that children from less well-off backgrounds can grow up more confident and be better prepared to to begin school at Primary 1.

IVF, or invitro-fertilisation, an alternative that was previously considered too expensive by many couples who wish to conceive but cannot do so, has also been given a boost, as PM Lee promised to offer financial support to lower the costs of IVF.

These measures will cost the government an estimated additional $700 million. Currently, the government spends $1.6 billion a year to encourage pro-creation, or about 0.6 per cent of GDP.