Chapter 11

Summary:

Now people are faced with more decisions when it comes to having children (or not having children). Having a child is not the same as raising a child, and it take more than that to become a parent. When a couple finds out the are pregnant there are a couple different ways that in which they can react; they can be planners, they can accept their fate, they can be ambivalent, and one partner may not want the child. Having a child may bring a couple joy and happiness, but there are some cost that they will experience (literally and figuratively). The cost that these couple will now have to pay are economical, social, emotional, and physical.

The US fertility rate has decline in the last hundred years. The fertility rate is affected by macro-level and micro-level factors:
Macro-Level Factors

• population growth
• technology
• race and ethnicity
• religion
• labor force participation
• social class
• access to health care

Micro-Level Factors

• intercourse variables
• conception variables
• pregnancy outcome variables

Now many people (especially women) are faced with the "Babies vs. Career" dilemma; babies are losing in this battle and many people are postponing parenthood. Some reasons people are postponing parenthood are:
Macro-Level Factors

• recession
  
• disturbed by high divorce rates
• advances in reproductive technologies make it easy if they decide to wait
• don't want to make crowded living spaces worse
  

Micro-Level Factors

• daunting jobs and careers
• single women don't want to have child on own
• couples wait until on partner is able to stay at home and raise the child
• the want to build equity
  

Some people who are not delaying parenthood want to have children but they are unable to. this inability can come from both female and male infertility. Female infertility happens when the female cannot ovulate or there is blockage of the fallopian tubes. Male infertility happens when the sperms is slow, or the sperm count is low. When this happens this places a strain on the couple. Some couples may consider to treat their infertility medically. They may attempt procedures such as artificial insemination, fertility drugs, and surrogacy. If these techniques do not work then couples may turn to adoption.

For couples with in fertility problems their next option may be adoption. Adoption is the taking of a child into one's family through legal means and raising her or him as one's own. There are six types of adoption:

1. Transracial Adoption - adoption across different races, color, and nationality
2. Open Adoption - the practice of sharing information and maintaining contact between biological and adoptive parents
3. Closed Adoption - records of the adoption are kept sealed and the birth parents are not involved in the child's life
4. Semi-Open Adoption - communication between the adopted, adoptive parents, and birth parents is mediated through a third party
5. Adoption by Same-Sex Partners - adoption when the adoptive parents are of the same sex
6. International Adoption - adopting children from a different country (the waiting period is a lot less shorter, than adopting child in the US)

The there are some case where women become pregnant when they do not want to be; they may then choose to get an abortion. An abortion is the expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus. Of course this can happen naturally and this would would be called a spontaneous abortion or a miscarriage. Abortions are common among women who are young, and never married. Reasons for getting an abortion are:

• not being ready for motherhood
• having to leave a job because of inability to pay for child care services
• not wanting to be a single mother
• deciding not to have more children
  
• not wanting others to know they had sex or are pregnant

New Things:

I found it interesting that the waiting period to adopt a child from another country is only 1-2 years when the waiting time to adopt one of our own children in the US is 7-10 years. After 7-10 years will the couple still even be looking to have a child? And why is there a priority placed on international children.

Discussion:

I would like to know the thoughts of the class on the Nadya Suleman story, since it does pertain to this chapter and it was such a big story.

I also want to know the class' thought on this picture (it was the topic in another one of my classes that I found very interesting)

source: http://www.worldpulse.com/node/35287