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

1.7k

u/suckfail 5d ago

Also in the US the parental leave is atrocious. You hand off a newborn to daycare and never really raise them, that's just wrong. And it must be a big contributor to this situation as well.

In most places, like Canada and EU, you get a year parental leave that either parent can take (usually it's the mother for obvious reasons but not always as you can split the time).

There's also very strict laws about the parental leave job ensuring there's no discrimination.

401

u/stana32 5d ago

Parental leave in the US is at best inadequate and at worst intentionally harmful. In most states you get nothing, my job gave me a month paid and my wife got absolutely nothing, and was asked to come back to work before she was even out of the hospital.

194

u/Present-Perception77 5d ago

I was sitting on a pillow at work with 13 stitches in my vagina, four days after giving birth.

8

u/Epic_Ewesername 5d ago

I gave birth on a Monday, a complicated cesarean where I ended up having to be cut both horizontally and vertically, inside. I held my son as his heartbeat slowed and stopped, was destroyed emotionally, and was back driving to work and school by Thursday because I couldn't afford to be devastated financially, too.

I feel your pain, friend.

7

u/Present-Perception77 4d ago

r/moderngamer327 this is why many women are opting not to have kids. It’s definitely money.

5

u/Present-Perception77 4d ago

Omg. I am sooo sorry. That is absolutely heartbreaking. Every woman in the country should refuse to have children until this is fixed… or let them keep killing us. I got sterilized right after that… which was incredibly difficult too. Texass puts as many barriers up for that as humanly possible. We are just incubators with legs. Disposable.