Fertility and Birth Rates: Let’s Discuss

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We’re discussing this text (and past) on CorporetteMoms right this moment too, however the dialog has a special taste over there!

Did you catch the story in The Wall Street Journal [gift link] a few weeks in the past that addressed falling delivery charges? The WSJ reported that the delivery price amongst American girls has fallen to 1.62 per lady — the bottom because the Nineteen Thirties when the federal government started conserving monitor. (The article does observe this: “The figures are provisional and prone to modify barely when ultimate information are launched later this yr.”)

Yet one more hanging stat: In 1950, within the midst of the newborn increase, the crude delivery price was 24.1 per 1,000 individuals, and by 2018, it had dropped to 11.6, based on Pew Research. It is a main concern for different industrialized nations as properly — right this moment CNN reported that South Korea’s fertility price (a bit totally different than delivery price) is so low at 0.72 in 2023 that the federal government could create a Ministry of Low Beginning Price Counter-planning. (Hmm, that feels a bit Handmaid’s Story.)

We thought we’d use the WSJ article as a jumping-off level for a dialogue right this moment. (Btw, it’s a coincidence that this publish is in the identical week as Mom’s Day! BUT when you want present concepts, take a look at our recent gift ideas open thread, which ALSO coincidentally was printed on the day the WSJ story got here out.)

Listed below are two key excerpts from the WSJ article:

The decline displays a seamless development as American girls navigate financial and social challenges which have prompted some to forgo or delay having kids. A confluence of things are at play. American girls are having fewer kids, later in life. Girls are establishing fulfilling careers and have extra entry to contraception.

On the identical time, younger individuals are additionally extra unsure about their futures and spending extra of their revenue on homeownership, pupil debt and baby care. Some girls who wait to have kids might need fewer than they might have in any other case for causes together with declining fertility.

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The long-term results of decreasing charges may form the financial system, applications together with Social Safety and different sides of American life, mentioned Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley Faculty. “It has the flexibility to have a big affect on the best way we dwell for a very long time to come back,” he mentioned.

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Is anybody actually shocked by this information? Simply eager about the more than likely elements turns into daunting: the the present and future affect of local weather change, the crises and wars around the globe, abortion bans and related restrictions on maternal care, discrimination towards pregnant staff and dealing moms, insufficient authorities assist for households, employers offering insufficient paid household go away, and so forth.

So, let’s focus on:

Readers who’re planning to have youngsters: Are you ready longer to take action — longer than you anticipated? In case you are ready, how a lot are you nervous about declining fertility? Have you considered freezing your eggs?

Alternately, when you’re undecided whether or not you need youngsters — or don’t ever need them — how a lot is your career an element, and the way a lot of your determination stems from a number of of the elements listed above — if in any respect?

Inventory picture through Pexels / cottonbro studio.