Natalia Tchamiashvili and Irakli Khuchua, both 26, are having their first child after 4 years of being together when they were ready to take this responsibility.
"People think that you should give birth to your child as soon as you get married. When we planned our marriage, we knew that we were ready for it, but at the same time, we realized that the child was associated with additional responsibilities, and therefore we postponed parenthood a little," says Natalia.
"We both were at early stages of our careers; the income we earned was sufficient to provide for a family of two, but it would not have been enough for a third person, and we had other things to do in our lives that required a lot of time," she adds.
What is family planning about?
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of World Population Report 2023 pays special attention to the introduction and implementation of family-friendly policies in countries.
The report provides recommendations for governments to develop policies focused on gender equality and rights, including parental leave, tax credits for dependent child, promoting gender equality in the workplace, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
In particular, the Report says that: “implementing family-friendly conditions for those who want to have children and providing contraceptives for those who don’t are critical efforts that support reproductive rights and gender equality.”
According to Mariam Bandzeladze, Gender Analyst at the UNFPA Georgia Country Office, in order for women to be able to fully realize their potential, advance in their career and actively participate in the labour market, it is necessary to take appropriate measures on the part of employers.
"This could include a parental leave, offering mothers flexible work schedules, investing more to increase access to quality childcare services, and more... Introducing family-friendly policies will allow women to have children when they want, while compromising neither their professional aspirations nor their goals," she notes.
Natalia Tchamiashvili also believes that it is important for future parents to be aware of the responsibilities related to having a child and not to feel that she/he is sacrificing herself/himself for the child that she will regret for the rest of her/his life.
She wanted to study for a master's degree abroad before becoming a mother. Her husband, Irakli also had his own "missions" to complete.
“I knew that someday I would like to be a mother, but I was not yet mature enough to think about it," says Natalia.
After taking steps in their careers, preparing themselves financially and making sure that they were healthy and mentally ready, they decided to have a child.
Preparation for parenthood
The UNFPA actively collaborates with the private and public sectors to implement family-friendly and gender-responsive policies, which means offering better conditions to employees to be able to reconcile their work and family lives.
According to the UNFPA State of World Population Report 2023, many countries have programmes that provide financial incentives for women and their partners to better prepare for parenthood. Since similar programmes have not yet been actively implemented in Georgia, Natalia and Irakli were preparing for parenthood independently.
"We made small savings, we also tried to do some research to calculate the approximate costs of having a child. In addition, as soon as we made the decision, we started taking more care of our health," says Natalia, adding that they started visiting health facilities for medical examinations a year earlier.
Natalia advises couples planning to have a child to get information about public or private health services that can provide assistance during pregnancy and childbirth, and while calculating expenses, to take into account healthy nutrition, as well as expenses related to the child, which start with pregnancy. All this, according to Natalia and Irakli, requires a stable income.
Paternity leave
While expecting his child, Irakli Khuchua took a paternity leave in order to support his wife and being able to take care of the new-born as much as possible.
"The child not only belongs to the mother but to the father as well. It is necessary to share responsibilities," says Irakli.
As UNFPA’s Mariam Bandzeladze points out, in order to actually introduce a family-friendly policy in the country, the UNFPA contributed to the reform of the Labour Code of Georgia, the result of which was the segregation between the concepts of maternity (childbirth) leave and that of parental (child care) leave.
"Accordingly, fathers are given an opportunity to take parental leave and actively participate in the process of child care. In addition, the UNFPA is working with the private sector to raise awareness among employees so that they can benefit from parental leave without any restrictions or stereotypes,” she explains.
The attitude towards parental leave in Georgia has changed dramatically over the last 6 years.
In particular, according to the 2019 study "Men, Women, and Gender Relations in Georgia: Public Perceptions and Attitudes", approximately two out of three women and men support the idea of paternity leave. 62.3% of respondents state that there should be a law regulating paternity leave and 66% believe that both mothers and fathers should be able to take a parental leave.
According to the similar survey conducted in 2013, one in two respondents said they did not see the need for a law regulating the paternity leave, and nearly the same number of respondents did not support the idea of making it an employer's obligation to offer paternity leave.
In Georgia "people tend to start families earlier, they also have children at a younger age", says Natalia and hopes that information related to reproductive health issues will become part of the school curriculum and thus awareness of family planning services will raise.
She advises other couples that despite the desire of those around them to interfere in the planning of their families, they should always judge for themselves what is best for them - "voices coming from the outside should not be as important, we should listen to our inner voice."
