SINGAPORE – For most of her life, Kelly Ang was terrified of children.
“They seemed very unpredictable and I didn’t know how to interact with them,” said the 38-year-old freelance writer. “It felt like a lot of work.”
When she got married 15 years ago, she thought she would have one or two children, or perhaps three at most.
She is now expecting her sixth child, due in July. She and her husband, a 42-year-old teacher, have five children aged between three and 13.
Her path to motherhood has been marked by joy and heartbreak.
After her first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, she experienced a “seismic shift” in how she saw motherhood, realising that children could not be taken for granted.
Along the way, she has had five miscarriages, including the loss of a baby at 20 weeks’ gestation in 2025. She says she still mourns each child she lost.
Ang’s family is Catholic. “Every life is precious and we are living beyond ourselves,” she said.
“With every child we add to our family, the quality of life increases with joy, meaning and all the intangible stuff.
“I feel my kids are not losing out by having more siblings, and each time I’m pregnant, they are very excited.”
In an era when most Singaporeans stop at having one or two children, a small group of parents, like Ang, are having larger families.
The share of babies who were the fifth or subsequent child in their families accounted for 2.1 per cent of all babies born in 2025, up from 1.5 per cent in 2005. In 2015, the figure was 1.4 per cent.
Read Full Article At Source
