With Each French Birth, a Dividend From the State

For the past several years, the Albi edition of the regional newspaper, the Depeche du Midi, has been running prominent color photographs of newborns at the local hospital, often mentioning siblings as well and showing them alongside the infants. "Corentin, 2, shows us his little sister Maelle," read the caption for a photo of two little heads published Tuesday under the headline "Babies of the Day."

But not all family traditions have endured. More than half the babies in France are now born out of wedlock, according to the official statistics institute. This is due in large measure to the growing number of couples who live together without formalizing the relationship with a marriage certificate. At the same time, women increasingly have extended their childbearing years, with the average age for mothers nearly 30.

The stigma once associated with out-of-wedlock births seems to have largely disappeared. For example, Justice Minister Rachida Dati is visibly pregnant but is not married as far as is known and refuses to reveal who is the father.

In any case, Silvera said, the overriding reason for France's growing birthrate is the government programs that allow women, married or unmarried, to raise children without abandoning their jobs. About 60 percent of women have entered the workforce, she said, a number that is rising even as the fertility rate grows.

"Encouraging women to work, this is also encouraging a strong birthrate, and this is new," she added.

Gilles Pinson, a specialist at the National Institute for Demographic Studies, noted that in general, Northern European countries with strong representation of women in the workforce are also those with the continent's highest birthrates. The reason, he explained, is that those countries also are the ones with the most social benefits for working mothers.

Tiphaine Chevreil, who gave birth to her third child Tuesday in the Albi hospital, said she was looking forward to a six-month paid maternity leave, which is standard practice for the third child. Chevreil, a diplomat stationed along with her husband at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv, said she would not suffer professionally from her absence because government officials are so used to the procedure that it is considered automatic.

Public schools, for instance, long have offered free instruction beginning at age 3. Many localities offer child care even before that, reaching about half the country's infants. But crowded urban areas often have an insufficient number of places in infant care facilities. To make up for the scarcity, many local governments offer subsidies for private nannies or pay for their unemployment and health insurance.

The basic monthly child-support payments, which have been in place for decades and vary according to the number of children, have been significantly strengthened over the years by the additional supports. Taken together, a mother of two calculated, the various programs of financial support can rise to more than $800 a month, plus the value of the public schooling for babies.

A more recent measure has made it possible for mothers of three children to take off up to three years while receiving about $600 a month, in addition to the usual child-support payments. More than half a million mothers have received benefits under the program since it began in the 1990s.

But Guislaine Bonnet, who gave birth to her second son last Saturday, said that was attractive mostly to mothers with low salaries. After the standard maternity leave, she said, she plans to return to work at a local government agency that advises poor families how to handle their finances. In any case, she added, the cost of having a child or the impact on her career never entered into the discussion when she and her husband were talking about having another.

"The question does not come up," she said in an interview as her newborn, Florian, slept beside her in a hospital room. "I have always known it like this. I never asked the question."