Pressure to procreate: inside Hungary’s baby drive | Europe's Baby Bust

Hungary has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, and prime minister Viktor Orbán is spending significant money trying to convince young people to have babies.

In the second episode of Europe's Baby Bust, Leah Green and Ekaterina Ochagavia visit Budapest, and meet three women of similar age and with very different outlooks on the country’s drive to procreate. Is there undue pressure or does Orbán's plan merely support future parents?

#BabyBust #Hungary #PayingForPregnancy #Budapest #Orbán #Pregnancy

[akostest]

Women in Hungary can choose career, but also they can have family and the state helps a lot. My daughter was born few months ago and my wife can choose to stay at home 3 years with the baby or she can choose to go back to work in part time or full time. The companies can't decline women to go back to the same company.

[blucantrell]

Most people would choose to raise familes if they did not feel so economically precarious and vulnerable in modern society with the constant pressure to work and earn or fall behind. Then people who cannot afford to rear their children get told they should not have had kids they could not afford. Loss of family support due to career pressures taking people away from their traditional support structures. Fix the economics and society will follow.

[goddessreverierosehawthorn]

Yup. In laws want grandbabies but society wants me to have higher education, a career, a house, a dog, health insurance, a safe car and all the pre-baby stuff..If you don’t have the “nest” for a baby, society does not want you to have children in the US anyway. It’s considered personal failure if you don’t have a baby but also failure if you have a baby while being poor. Only rich people are seen to deserve this life. Everyone else pretends while in debt or just does it anyway.

[michakrol]

Rich countries: low birth rate because rising babies is too costly
Poor countries: birth control is needed to avoid overpopulation

[aoblak]

I am a 36-year old Canadian male, but my mother's family are Hungarian & I grew up with a lot of Hungarian influences. I really miss the Hungarian culture, family friends & intellectual conversations of my youth with the Hungarians I knew. Hungarians are a tight knit & intelligent group of people and have a beautiful culture. Greetings from Canada!

[rchlletters]

This is more an economic issue, not a choice. People cannot afford the cost to give birth let alone stop working or have paid child care.

[Clockwork_]

That older couple from the big family...you can tell they are still into each other. I want something like that.

[SneedEnjoyer]

Children? Family? Nah I rather die alone after working 40 years for some company that sees me as a replaceable cog, that this true meaning of life.

[sarahj]

If you have to pay people to have children or even get married, there is a possibility that this decision to remain childless and single have an economic factor .
Increase jobs, encourage women in the work force, promote paternal leave, childcare at offices .Having babies that have no future to look forward to in the country is not the answer.

[WitchyWhale]

Not everyone has the mental or physical state to raise children.

[christinewalsh]

I married at 33. I have six children. I would not suggest it. It is draining, tiring, and hard work. I did what I did, I love my children, but it's not fair to ask women to have big families.

[pedroportillo]

Notice how both the child free woman and the woman with 3 kids are both perfectly happy with their decisions. However, somehow, it socially acceptable to criticize and mentally torture the woman who chose to be child free. This isn’t a Hungarian thing either. Same thing happens in the US, but to a lesser extent.

[renown]

The husband and wife at the end of the video that has been married for forty years are truly admirable. I wish to have that one day.

[lisasomethingwithanr]

Can we talk about how providing for oneself/ a family and caring for children is such a huge psychological challenge and commitment and no doubt it's admirable if people manage this kind of situation. However currently I believe I would end up with some sort of Burnout and no one would be helped by that, especially not a child.

[slendercrescents]

Notice the kids screaming and running around while the crew is filming? That's the exact reason there are child free hotels, there's nothing evil about it. I think many parents also appreciate the opportunity to enjoy some peace and romantic time together... Is it really a vacation when you're dealing with kids all day?

[thevipgurlz]

There is no pressure...if someone doesn't want kids...more like being encouraged by getting lots of discounts when have 3.

[nuanpatricia]

I think that most younger generations don't want to have kids as they've seen how broken the world and the systems made by the earlier generation that came to be. They don't want to bring kids in such a world.

[alwayslearning]

Sadly, having children has become an economic question for most.
It's too expensive!
If they can get rid of this problem I think people would have more children.

[naireretomassjoo]

Not everyone is supposed to be a parent!

[melmel]

Growing up in the USA I experienced tons of pressure to have children. The comment that annoyed me the most was "you will never experience real love if you do not have children." Bull. While I don't disagree that the loving bond between a mother & her child is special & profoundly unique I do not believe that type of love is the ONLY love or even the best love that can be experienced. In my long life I have experienced lots of loving relationships & have never lacked for love. Romantic love, familial love with parents, siblings, nieces & nephews, friendship love, etc. Bottom line is we should respect the choices that people make.