Chapter 11

Summary:

This chapter discusses parents and children, more specifically to be or not be a parent. It begins with discussing some of the benefits and costs of having children, some of the joys and tribulations of pregnancy and some of the effects of parenthood. Some of the effects of parenthood that are specifically discussed are mothers and their newborns and fathers and their newborns. It is a myth that an instant bonding occurs between a mother and her newborn child. Everyone involved in the child’s life will influence him/her. When discussing the mothers postpartum depression was also brought up. This is a serious illness that can occur up to a year after childbirth when women feel sad, hopeless, worthless, and have trouble caring for the baby. As for fathers and their newborns, it is just as important for fathers to sooth crying babies and play with them. This chapter continues with discussing how many children a couple may want. Within this section fertility is mentioned along with the discussion of the fertility rate, which is the number of live children born per year per 1,000 women ages 15-44. This section also covers the factors for why the U.S. fertility rates have changed. Here, both macro-level factors and micro level factors such as contraception are discussed. This section also covers the infant mortality rate. The next section of this chapter discussed postponing parenthood. Within this section Benokraitis discussed the reasons behind why many people are postponing parenthood and some characteristics of older parents. When the reasons for why people postponing parenthood was discussed, this section covered both the micro-level factors such as jobs and careers and the macro-level factors such as economic recession and high unemployment. Within the discussion of characteristics of older parents both the advantages and disadvantages were listed. Chapter 11 then continues with a discussion about infertility. Infertility is the inability to conceive a baby. Under this section reasons for infertility were discussed for both female and male. Some female reasons include pelvic inflammatory disease, which is an infection of the uterus that spreads to the tubes, ovaries, and surrounding tissues, chlamydia, and endometriosis, which is a condition in which the tissue forms in the endometrium and spreads outside the womb attaching itself to other pelvic organs such as the ovaries or the fallopian tubes. Most reasons for male infertility result from sluggish sperm or a low sperm count. These could be caused by injury to the testicles or scrotum, infections such as mumps in adulthood, testicular varicose veins that impede sperm development, undescended testes, endocrine disorders, and excessive consumption of alcohol marijuana, narcotics and some prescription medication. Also within this section of the chapter are the reactions to infertility. The conclusion of this section nicely leads us into the next section of the chapter which discusses adoption. Here, the chapter discusses transracial adoption, open and closed adoption, adoption by same-sex partners, international adoption, and some of the rewards and costs of adoption. An open adoption is the practice of sharing information and maintaining contact between biological and adoptive parents throughout the child’s life and a closed adoption is where the records of the adoption are kept sealed and the birth parent is not involved in the adoptee’s life. This section also mentioned semi-open adoption. This is also sometimes called mediated adoption and it is when there is communication between the adoptee and the adoptive and biological parents but it takes place through a third party such as a caseworker or attorney. Also following the infertility discussion of the chapter are the medial and high-technology solutions. Two of the most common medical treatments that the chapter includes are artificial insemination and fertility drugs. Chapter 11 also mentions assisted reproductive technology which is a general term that includes all treatments or procedures that involve the handling of human eggs and sperm to establish a pregnancy. This chapter also explores genetic engineering and its benefits and costs. Some of the benefits that the chapter lists are that it can detect prenatal genetic disorders and abnormalities by amniocentesis, which is when a needle is inserted through the abdomen in the twentieth week of pregnancy and fluid is withdrawn and analyzed for abnormalities such as Down syndrome and spina bifida. They also do chorionic villus sampling which is when a catheter is inserted through the vagina removes some of the villi from the chorion (the outer membrane that surrounds the amniotic sac). Some of the costs that were listed were that techniques such as ART increase the risk of birth defects. The last major issue that this chapter discussed was abortion, including topics such as the incidence of abortion, who has abortions and why, if it is emotionally and/or physically healthy, and why abortion rates have decreased. According to this chapter some of the causes of why abortion rates have decreased are the attitudes about abortion, the use of contraceptives, abortion services being fewer, and laws and policies. The final section of this chapter covers the idea that the desire to have children is not universal and that couples who choose to not have a child would prefer being referred to as child free rather than childless since childless implies a lack or a loss.

What was interesting/what did I learn:

The childfree and childless debacle was probably one of the most interesting points in this chapter. It is funny how sometimes we use words that we don’t mean to be harmful to others but they end up doing just that. I was a little shocked that those who were without children preferred to be called child free as opposed to childless just because the word free connotes freedom. If I was in that position I feel like I would have rather been called childless because it would not make me sound as selfish and self-centered as the term child free.

Question:

With the increase of technology and the increase of the quality of technology, do you think the success rate of 20% of artificial inseminations will ever increase as well? In other words, do you think technology will eventually aid this procedure in being more successful?