2 - A Private Programme

Summary

FORMATION OF THE FAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATION (FPA)

Birth control as a means of spacing children and limiting family size has long been practised by couples in Singapore on an individual basis, sometimes with the advice of doctors and friends and the use of family planning literature. However, this practice was confined only to a small group of persons belonging mainly to the more educated and wealthier classes. The idea of providing family planning services to the general public was first discussed by a major correspondent in the Straits Times in January 1935, and this attracted some public comments from various interested groups about the pros and cons of family planning. Public interest in this subject was revived during the visit of Mrs Margaret Sanger, a world authority on birth control, to Singapore in February 1936 when she advocated that, among other things, family planning should be an essential part of the official public health programme. In December 1936, the Chinese Christian Association debated the matter and voted, with only three against, that birth control clinics should be established in Singapore. Some time before World War II, the establishment of a private family planning society was in fact recommended by a leading article in an English newspaper published on 21 September 1938. This suggestion did not result in any positive action and it was not until a decade later that such a society was formed.

The idea of providing family planning services for the general public on a large and organized scale was debated again during the post-war years when the country was faced with serious social and economic dislocations. Apart from housing and educational problems, the government was confronted with the problem of feeding a large number of undernourished persons, especially children roaming the streets, because of rampant food shortages. The Social Welfare Department set up numerous centres to feed the hungry children, but it soon became apparent to the group of voluntary workers assisting in this scheme that, instead of feeding the children, the parents should be given family planning advice to plan their family size according to their means.

At the invitation of the YWCA International Club, a series of lectures on birth control was delivered in April 1949 by the Head of the Social Welfare Department, the Municipal Lady Health Officer, and the wife of a senior missionary to some sixty women.