Birth record: everything that will change for families in 2026

Minister Catherine Vautrin presents an ambitious plan to relaunch the birth rate in France, aimed at aligning public policies on demographic figures considered alarming: 663,000 births in 2024, a fertility rate of 1.62 children per woman Against an average desire of 2.2 children.

Faced with this observation and an active/retired relationship in strong degradation, the initiatives cover the themes of infertility, the welcome of young children and the parental leave.

Well -misure counts … but with uncertain efficiency

Catherine Vautrin wanted to distinguish the causes of the fall of births. “”I would distinguish two types of infertility: the first, which I would qualify for me as a doctor, is important. It concerns women for a third, for a third party man and for the last third, couples. The second is social infertility, generated by the anxiety that wars arouse around us, environmental concerns, difficulties relating to childhood assistance or access to accommodation … We add to what more and more women express the desire to reconcile their professional and personal lives“He said for the Express.

This recognition of “social” infertility marks a change of tone in the face of Emmanuel Macron’s “demographic rear views” a year earlier. It shows that the government clearly perceives that obstacles to parenting go beyond the only medical causes. It remains to be seen if the tools offered – Fertility assessments at 29, creation of AMP centers, research funding – It will really be able to compensate for structural concerns such as precariousness or climatic anxiety.

Birth leave: a step towards more equality of parents

The “birth leave” project, shorter than parental leave, but better compensated (up to € 1,900), is a rebalancing tool between parents. Each parent can take it later during the first year.

If it can encourage the involvement of the fathers, its effectiveness will depend on its adaptation to economic realities. For many modest families, this compensation will not be enough to counterbalance the loss of income, in particular among self -employed workers or in part.

Is a policy to welcome the child still too theoretical?

The plan also improves the welcome of young children, with an accent placed in the first 1,000 days and a revaluation of early childhood professions. But on the field, the squares of nursery schools are still missing and the sector remains at tension. However, young parents regularly cite the absence of childhood assistance solutions as a great obstacle to extended parenting.

The polls also show that important brakes such as purchasing power, climatic insecurity or charges that weigh on families prevail on the effect of direct help.

A medium -term bet, between awareness and limited effects

The Vautrin plan aims to be realistic and not a nationalist, focusing on the prevention, information and modernization of the support for parenting. However, as a CCNE report recalls, France is not alone in this situation of demographic decline.

The risk is that these measures arrive too late in a context in which pregnancy decisions are increasingly linked to economic, environmental or social concerns.

If the measures announced Mark A turning point in the government approach – More medicalized, more incentives, more egalitarian. They reflect the desire to respond to the aspirations expressed by French couples.

However, their real area will depend on their concrete implementation, on their readability for families and their ability to act on real obstacles: cost of accommodation, professional life and personal life, anxiety for the future. At present, these devices are necessary, but not sufficient to reverse a fundamental trend that attracts its roots well beyond public mechanisms.