My Summary:
The chapter starts off with talking about how parenthood is a rite of passage and is, even though most people do not realize, it is a lifelong commitment. As most things there are pros and cons for being a parent and having children. The benefits are emotional fulfillment and personal satisfaction. The costs can be a decline in marital satisfaction and high expenses. Fertility patterns have been impacted by micro and macro factors. This is why the United States fertility rates have fluctuated in the past seventy years and are still low. The infant mortality rates of the United States are higher than ever and are even higher then developing countries.
The chapter goes on to say how postponing parenthood is now a common trend. There are various reasons why people are postponing parenthood. The benefits of not having children right away are being able to still be independent and the opportunity to build a career. The costs are finding it difficult or impossible to have biological children later in life. Sometimes though some couples are not given the option to even have children and are just struck with infertility. Some reasons for infertility are physical and physiological difficulties, environmental hazards, and unhealthy lifestyles. Even though these obstacles might stand in the way of people having kids that are biologically theirs there is other ways to have kids. Some options couples can take are adoption, artificial insemination, and a number of high-tech procedures (vitro fertilization and surrogacy). Even with these options there are still obstacles within these other options. An example of this is some obstacles that may be faced with adoption is transracial adoption, open adoption, and adoption by the same-sex couples.
Even though some couples desperately want children there are some people who do not want to have unwanted births. Improved contraceptive techniques and the availability of abortion have helped with preventing unwanted births. Abortion has become less popular since 1990, but it is still a debated topic in the United States. Despite all of the infertility problems and improved contraception there are still the minority who choose not to have children at all, but it is not becoming acceptable within society.
My Opinions/ Questions:
The part that I found was really interesting fluctuating fertility rates in the United States. The reason I found it to be interesting is because when I looked at the graph the fertility rates were pretty much level except the years of the baby boom. I just wonder if these factors that they list for lower fertility rates are actually what kept the rate low or if the baby boom factor was just a freak thing that happened to increase the fertility rate exponentially? Another issue addressed that I found interesting was the topic of adoption. I feel that it is more difficult to adopt children than most people think. For one thing it is very expensive to adopt a child. Also you have to go through a rigorous process to make sure that you are qualified to adopt a child. I was just wondering if this could possibly be the true reason for less couples becoming parents is because of obstacles such as rigorous tasks in order to have children?
No comments:
Post a Comment