I have also read essays arguing that feminism itself needs to be more supportive of motherhood . [theguardian.com] , [huffingtonpost.com]

I think there are lot of reasons the birth rate is declining and this is good news!! It is too expensive, takes too much time and many people are waking up to the fact that children often contribute to stress and a broken relationship (studies have shown that a majority of parents regret having children - a previous posting of mine). This country has been at almost replacement level for over a decade. Unfortunately, the pro-growth, business mantra has painted that as a bad omen and sought ways to turn it around. A recent article in a Canadian paper titled it the "birth-dearth" and said a lot of negative things. Here's an interesting fact: [cbsnews.com] This is pure crap. The Romans, almost 2,000 years ago had the same issue and the government tried to increase birth rates, unsuccessfully. What they did was to bring in more residents from outlying lands. The maintenance of so many, non-Romans led to a strain on resources and eventually the fall of the empire. Sound familiar?

Makes you want to move, doesn't it?

I have no children, and I’m glad I didn’t. Let’s just say that a world corrupted by greed, avarice and violence doesn’t deserve them. I refuse to feed it more resources than I absolutely have to

Debt,economy late marriage because of debt,cost of college

The political concern is that with fewer people having children and those who do have children only having one or two at most AND people living longer that the working population will be insufficient to pay for the social safety net and health care needs of the elderly population. Some people understand that in nations where this is the trend, one way to create a larger base of working people is to take on those who come from countries where there is overpopulation and more people than there is paid work available and the culture promotes greater childbearing and young marriage. The perception that white Christians need to breed and have bigger families in order to maintain their demographic advantage is part and parcel of a lot of these fundamentalist movements, such as Quiverfull.

I only had one child and it still completely derailed the career path I was following at the time, and now I am back in school in my damn 50's to rebuild something for enough years until I really can retire. Sure had no effect on my ex-husband's career trajectory at all. This is a reality many women have faced. Our society does not provide much in the way of support for women who choose deliberately to become mothers. The political climate instead seems largely interested in focusing on women who choose not to become mothers by accident. I have a friend from Finland and when she tells me what the Finnish govt. does to support the parents of newborns and infants, it's night and day. Give it a read: [finnishmythoughts.weebly.com]

For those in the know, it could cost $20,000 plus for a birth, and in the US we don’t yet have universal health care.

Yep, that on top of everything else.

Oh yeah. This is so very, very true.

A declining birth rate is a great thing.

As a woman, I can say that this is NOT being missed by all the other women I know. Who the hell is missing this? Men? I guess they don't get punished for pregnancy that often, but really? Are they that blind? Discrimination of this sort is hardly a new thing, nor is it particularly rare. Aside from the obvious disdain for women, I'm okay with declining birth rates because the world is already overpopulated and that's a serious issue.

Can't be having to many mouths to feed.The Government!

Pretty sure nobody's missing it at all. I hear about this all the time.