The End of Motherhood?

A reporter for German Public Radio recently asked me a startling question: If the U.S. is so inhospitable to working moms, and European countries offer long maternity leaves, job security, and child-care stipends, why are American women having so many babies when European women are not?

Turns out the "total fertility rate" or TFR in Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Russia is far lower than the 2.0 TFR needed to replace the population, according to an article in Newsweek's May 29 issue. In the U.S. the TFR is 2.1 children for every woman. According to an article this past Sunday in The Washington Post, the birthrate is even higher in parts of Utah, Texas and even Loudoun County just outside Washington, D.C. (and doubtless in other pockets throughout the U.S.)

I have two answers. First, motherhood is not a rational business. Most of us don't decide to have children because it is economically profitable or because our employers or the government are urging us to procreate.

Second, we LOVE motherhood in this country. Sure, we have a lot of opinions about what makes a good mom and a raging debate about how to help -- or not help -- working mothers. But overall, we worship pregnancy, fertility and motherhood (even as baseball and apple pie have declined in popularity). Encouraged by the ever-present message that "motherhood is the most important thing a woman can ever do" most of us females want to give it a try. Hence the 80.5 million moms in America today and nearly four million children born each year according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

How would you have answered the reporter's question? How and why did you decide to have -- or not have -- children?

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  May 25, 2006; 6:00 AM ET  | Category:  Research
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