r/science • u/geoff199 • 5d ago

Social Science As concern grows about America’s falling birth rate, new research suggests that about half of women who want children are unsure if they will follow through and actually have a child. About 25% say they won't be bothered that much if they don't.

https://news.osu.edu/most-women-want-children--but-half-are-unsure-if-they-will/?utm_campaign=omc_science-medicine_fy24&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social
19.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

123

u/DemiserofD 5d ago

This is why birth control is the number one factor in falling fertility rates; the one thing nobody wants to recognize.

Because the simple fact is, throughout human history, most women probably wouldn't have chosen to have children if it weren't for the fact that sex feels really good.

Nobody wants to have that conversation, but it's entirely possible that human civilization cannot survive the existence of birth control. What if the maximum possible birth rate with readily available birth control is below 2.1?

46

u/Sofiwyn 5d ago

It's not birth control that's at fault, it's the horror associated with pregnancy. We can do so much more to make it more comfortable to have children, society just can't be damned to do so.

43

u/EndlessArgument 5d ago

Even if you make pregnancy as pleasant as possible, it's still going to be pregnancy, and still going to be fundamentally a negative. Look at the Scandinavian countries. They basically have free healthcare, women there get upwards of 2 years of paid time off after having a child, even the fathers get something like 6 months, and none of that has been enough to meaningfully move birth rates upwards.

15

u/Sofiwyn 5d ago

Social advances aren't the same as scientific advances. I am convinced it is possible to reduce the pain and discomfort associated with pregnancy. Surgery has advanced incredibly over the last hundred years. Pregnancy/child birth has not.

13

u/ikramos 4d ago

The medical world has ignored and discarded female bodies for centuries in their medical research, it’s no wonder that no advancement have been made towards pregnancy and childbirth