HER three primary school-going children wanted a baby sister, and despite approaching 40, Mrs Jilyn Tan thought: 'Why not?'

'I gave myself two or three months. I thought, if I don't conceive, that's it, the factory's closed,' recalls the primary school teacher, now 45.

She and her event organiser husband Peter, 50, went on to have not one but two more children, rounding off their brood of five.

Their youngest child Praiselyn was an accident, but as committed Christians, the Tans told themselves: 'Some families can't conceive and here we are with a fifth, so we better be thankful.'

For all five, the petite Mrs Tan had insisted on giving birth the natural way - no pain-numbing epidural or caesarean delivery for her - and breastfed them until they were toddlers.

Today, their firstborn Phil, a polytechnic student aged 18, is old enough to drive the family car and ferry his parents and younger siblings around.

Pelyn, 16, and Perry, 14, are in secondary school, while the baby of the family, Praiselyn, is a hyperactive four-year-old. Seven-year-old Paul attends Northland Primary where his mother teaches, just a minute's walk from their HDB home in Yishun.

Mrs Tan says she planned it that way because 'with so many kids, I have to keep family activities close to home, otherwise I would go crazy driving them all over Singapore'.

There are only 9 per cent of married women like Mrs Tan in Singapore, with five or more children, according to the General Household Survey of 2005.

Bringing up a brood of five is not without financial headaches and she confesses that they have had to watch every cent.

Their most stressful period was when Sars struck in 2003 and Mr Tan's business here was affected. He now works in Malaysia and returns home on weekends.

To save money, the couple downgraded from a seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle to a smaller Nissan Sunny.

Mrs Tan made a career switch as well, from human resource consulting to teaching as it promised a more steady income.

The family also had to forgo luxuries like long-distance travel in favour of short breaks in Malaysia and Indonesia. And the older children had to give up music lessons and other costly enrichment classes.

'We chose to look at it positively. Even if the children should be deprived of anything while growing up, they can be compensated in adult life when they start working,' she says.

Regret is the furthest thing from her mind. 'The pleasures of seeing them grow up - you can't put a price to that.'

In fact, the three older children have matured faster because of their family circumstances, working during the school holidays for extra pocket money and taking turns to mind their younger siblings.

One thing the Tans have not cut back on is a live-in foreign maid, who helps with household chores in their jumbo HDB flat.

If anything causes her a twinge of unhappiness, it is that her children were born too early to qualify for the Government's Baby Bonus payouts.

When the bonus was introduced in 2001, it applied only to the second ($3,000) and third ($6,000) child, so her fourth child Paul did not qualify even though he was born that year.

The cash bonus was expanded to cover the first ($3,000) and fourth child ($6,000) in 2004, a year after her fifth was born.

The scheme also has the Government matching dollar-for-dollar a savings fund for the second, third and fourth child, capped at a maximum of $12,000. This child development fund would have meant substantial savings for the Tans.

'I wish the policy could be changed so that with every child you are entitled to something - not just up to kid No. 4.

'And why not backdate it so that mothers like me who conceived four or more ahead of the policy can still be rewarded?' she suggests.

Also on her wish list: parents to be able to use as much of their Medisave as they want to pay for hospital delivery. Now, there are limits and the amount depends on the delivery procedure and length of hospital stay.

'After all, Medisave is our hard-earned money. I know the Government wants us to be prepared for retirement, but I think they should let us cope with childbirth first,' she says.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 12, 2008.