Summary:
In this chapter of the book, to be or not to be a parent is covered. The first section examined is on becoming a parent. The book notes that 72 percent of American adults have children, but almost half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended. Some reactions to pregnancy are:
· Planners è These couples actively choose to have the child, and plan ahead for it to occur.
· Acceptance-of-Fate è These couples did not plan the pregnancy, but openly welcome the situation.
· Ambivalent Couples è These couples have mixed feelings both before and after conception, and this ambivalence may span into the pregnancy.
· Yes-No Couples è In these situations, on of the partners does not want to have the child whereas the other partner does want to have the child.
Additionally, some other topics are discussed in this section on becoming a parent. One is that there are costs and benefits to having children. Second is that there are joys and tribulations to the process of pregnancy (which is somewhat similar to the costs and benefits to having children, but more specific to only the term of the pregnancy).
The next section discussed was on how many children one will want. Some terms mentioned in this section are:
· Fertility è The number of live births in the population.
· Total Fertility Rate (TFR) è The average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
· Fertility Rate è The number of live children born per year per 1000 women ages 15 to 44.
o Besides during the baby boomer “blip” the trend here has been that the fertility rate has been on the decline since the 1900s.
U.S. fertility rates have changed for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is macro-level social factors. Some examples of this include population growth, technology, race/ethnicity, religion, labor force participation, social class, and access to health care. Another of these reasons are micro-level variables. These variables can be divided as follows:
· Intercourse variables:
o Timing of first intercourse.
o Percent of women who ever had intercourse.
o Time spent in marriage (separation/divorce).
o Frequency of intercourse.
· Conception variables:
o Contraceptive use.
o Sterilization.
o Infertility.
· Pregnancy outcome variables:
o Miscarriage and stillbirth.
o Induced abortion.
Another factor to look at is infant mortality. Infant mortality rates are the number of babies under one year of age who die per 1000 live births in a give year. There has been a decrease in this statistic, which may factor into why U.S. fertility rates have changed over the past 100 years.
The book then discusses postponing parenthood. There are some micro-level and macro-level reasons for why parents are doing this, which are as follows:
· Micro:
o Daunting jobs and careers making it more difficult to meet a mate.
o Many single women simply to not want to be mothers on their own.
o Many couples do not want nannies/child care centers to raise their children, and therefore delay having a child till they are able to do this themselves.
o Women who are career oriented tend to not want to “juggle” childrearing on top of this.
· Macro:
o Economic recession and high unemployment cause young men to not be able to have the resources to have a family.
o Young couples living with their parents do not want to make the household even more crowded than it already is.
o Advances in reproductive technology have allowed women to not need to worry about postponing having a child.
New/Interesting/Unusual Items Learned:
The one thing that this chapter did that I felt was a good idea was it presented all of the factors as to why couples might postpone having a child and why fertility rates have dropped. It was interesting to see the many different variables posed in this argument.
Discussion:
One interesting topic that I felt was interesting was the discussion of how different couples react to having a child. However, I felt this to in many ways be a bit limited, as it only contained four main subsections, but I was at a loss when trying to think of how it could be expanded. Does anyone have any good ideas as to how to expand this section?
Karl Wahlen
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