Married women spend three times more time than their husband on unpaid care every day, according to a study by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of marriage and childbearing.
At a time when the declining birthrate is widely debated, the government must consider what it can do for married women, such as me, rather than simply stating that “women have to work too hard.”
The unpaid time spent on care measured in the study includes time spent caring for children, older people and other family members, providing daycare and long-term care, as well as doing household chores.
The traditional attitude is that men take care of external matters and women take care of the home. The main burden always falls on women, even if they also have a job.
One of the reasons for Taiwan’s low birthrate is the high cost of childcare and another reason is the uneven distribution of household duties.
From the perspective of a physiotherapist, in addition to discussing that women spend more time caring for children, it is also necessary to discuss the heavy physical work that this involves.
A study from 2005 shows that the most common skeletal muscle system pain developed by parents caring for children is lower back pain and headaches.
Professional childcarers most commonly develop pain in the lower back (34 percent), lower limbs (20 percent) and upper limbs (13 percent), the study showed.
The main reason women are more likely to suffer from skeletal muscle system pain could be that they naturally differ from men hormonally and physically — in combination with a lack of exercise.
The reason that it is easy to experience back pain when caring for children is excessive torque.
When caring for children, people use strength to hold their children, and this requires strong upper limbs and back muscles.
Childcare also means leaning forward when feeding, playing play with and bathing the children, and this requires more torque over a longer time, which results in cumulative injury.
This is why it is so easy to sprain the back and develop lower back pain with a careless twist of the body, or if a child is strong or heavy.
As for skeletal muscle system pain as a result of childcare, health education should provide new parents information about ergonomics — for example, how to hold a child in ways that are less strenuous, and how to choose items used to take care of children.
Choosing a higher diaper changing table and sitting the child in a bath chair when washing their hair are ways to reduce strain.
It is also important to change the environment and create an environment where it is not necessary to lean forward too often or too deeply, which is another way to reduce the risk of back pain.
Exercise is important and there are studies that show that one hour or more every week of the form of exercise that you find most enjoyable can reduce the risk of skeletal muscle system pain.
Still, the premise must be that both parents must be willing to cooperate: If we are to improve the birth rate, men must realize that if they participate in the care of their children and do their part of household duties, that would make for happier women — and children might grow up both happier and healthier.
Cho Chiung-yu is an associate professor in National Cheng Kung University’s physical therapy department.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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