Birthing Trends

I noticed a TON of pregnant women when I was pregnant with Dax. But, uh, that was in 2007 I was just doing my part to help that baby boom statistic.

I haven’t noticed it because I wasn’t around back then, but my mom tells me it is AMAZING the number of strangers who feel that just because a woman is pregnant she is public property: belly being touched (no one did this to me … guess I put off a vibe); advice being given (boy did I get this a lot, especially when obviously pregnant with my second while carrying my first around because she hadn’t learned to walk yet); and very unthoughtful comments being made (see previous aside). She said that when she was pregnant with her kids, people were in general more polite, but that they sort of did it in an abstract way … as if her giant beach ball belly had nothing to do with it

I haven’t noticed the decline, but that could be of my station in life right now…I go to MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers), so I know several women who are pregnant, and who have newborns! I have noticed that families are generally smaller, 2 kids seeming to be the “norm.”

Eryn´s last blog post..Today is a big day.

Hmm…I don’t know “for sure” if I’ve noticed trends. I have some friends with babies but the majority of my friends who are close in age and also career-oriented seem to be childless. However I can say for sure that my husband has the fever while I do not!! haha

Jill´s last blog post..Fashion Friday: 6th Edition

It’s fun to be above the two kid norm, especially with three children in four years. You get some funny looks. I wonder what people would say if we had four? Among our friends people are having two or more, no one is staying at one… But then there are some people not having any, so I guess it evens out that way.

Kristy´s last blog post..Learning about baby

I’m with you — it seems like everywhere I look these days, there’s a pregnant belly or a baby in a carrier! But I’m in the same place you are — trying to have a baby — so that’s definitely where my attention is these days. That’s interesting that they’re saying birth rates are down…wonder how long that trend will last.

I notice pregnant women more now too! I think it is an unspoken camraderie or bond that I feel with them now and wanted to feel so bad before we became pregnant. If its your next planned phase in life, I think it is only natural that your brain wants to observe them more. My husband is now noticing how parents deal with fussy babies, tantrum throwing two-yr-olds, and how new parents juggle all the equipment and gear that babies seem to require while out in public. He is already critiqueing strollers, carriers, and portable booster seats.

I’ve noticed people getting married later and having children in their late 20s/early 30s after finishing college and starting their careers, but maybe that’s just the people I hang around. (My mother-in-law was pregnant straight off her honeymoon at 19 years old and aspired to be a housewife.) I’ve also noticed the hip, young, educated and trendy crowd turning back to organics, cloth diapers, making their own baby food, breast feeding, and natural births. My mother’s generation shunned all this as women were becoming working mothers and needed the convenience of formula, disposable diapers, and jarred baby food.

I hope the birth rate in your area goes up by at least one in the next year.

Mindee@ourfrontdoor´s last blog post..The Invisble Man

I read an article about the declining birth rate on CNN a few days ago and it shocked me too. It seems like the last couple of years have produced a pretty steady flow of babies and I don’t see it slowing down anywhere around me. But obviously I’m wrong.

As far as birth trends go, I agree with Kate. For a long time, everything I heard suggested that women were waiting until they were older to have babies. Especially here in Los Angeles. But for some reason, that just isn’t what I see. I know a few people who waited until they were in their late 30s or early 40s to start a family, but mostly it seems like people we know are settling down younger and having babies younger. They’re still predominantly in their mid to late 20s, we don’t really know many people who are 21 and married with children, but that seems so much younger than what I was always lead to believe.

Completely know how you feel — I’m seeing pregnant tummies everywhere I look!

While I can see the argument for declining birth rates in a bad economy (less mouths to feed), there is also an argument for hunkering down and HAVING babies during this time. If I’m not going to be up for a big promotion or a big raise due to the economy, maybe now is a great time to start a family. The scary economic environment encourages us to concentrate on what we HAVE and what is really important. To many, that is family, not a hefty 401k.

Kate´s last blog post..She Says… Day 7 of The Challenge

Fascinating statistics, but I’m with you. It seems everwhere I turn there’s a pregnant lady!

Liz´s last blog post..Ava & Charlie, Part V

I am right there with you! I am so ready to get married and start a family soon after and it honestly seems like every few days I hear that another friend is engaged, getting married soon, pregnant with their first, or pregnant again, etc. I’m definitely happy for them, but it’s tinged with that “when’s it going to be my turn?” feeling. Hang in there, I can’t wait for the post when you tell us a little one is on the way!

Andrea´s last blog post..Memorial Day

It’s not just you. I’m noticing pregnant people popping (no pun intended) up everywhere too. Maybe on average the rate has decreased, just not in our local areas.

Courtney´s last blog post..Diving Dog

We found out we were pregnant two months after buying our furst home. My mother said, Generally couples are pregnant within 18 months of buying a home. I don’t know how true that is, but I guess it goes along with getting pregnant once you’ve stopped trying, or started the adoption process.

erin´s last blog post..baby thankfulness

I recently worked at a large Children’s hospital, where we were told the NICU census has been down since last summer, & that this is a national trend. Many of the NICU nurses believed it was because the economical downturn meant that many families no longer had the money for in-vitro fertilization (IVF). (IVF contributes a significant number of premature babies and babies with congenital anomalies to Level 3 NICU’s across the country, and the nurses noted they were seeing far fewer babies born from IVF as well).

I am seeing the trend with my friends as well. Most of us are in our mid-to-late twenties, settling down & getting married, and most of us have careers taking off at one rate or another. My fiance and I do want to have a couple kids eventually- as in like 5 years down the road- and we are very aware that this is not at all the norm amongst our friends. Most of our newly-married or soon-to-be-married friends explicitly do not want children, and a couple of them say they know they don’t want kids now and don’t know if they ever will want kids. Most of our friends are very well educated though, and I know there are many documented statistics about how the more education people have, the fewer children they tend to have- that is probably coming into play here.

And I have to say, I completely disagree with the supposed “Bristol Palin effect.” I work with many teen moms as a nurse, and can tell you that most of them have very little knowledge of what is going on in the world around them at all- and I doubt they know who Bristol Palin is, let alone think of her as a role model. Most of these girls literally need reminders to put down their cell phones and pay attention to their babies. I worry about what the future holds for them.

I am currently seeing pregnant women all the time. I’ve not been well, so am emphatically NOT trying to get pregnant, so I hope this is not a sign!

BG

Billygean´s last blog post..“For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think.” Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed.

Er. 26 years old… NOT 36.

well, to be honest it does not matter how old you are or how any degrees you have, nothing will ever prepare you enough to be a mom or dad.

I’ve seen so many younger parents be better parents than a older couple, scary but its true!!!!

I think this is relative to our stage in life. In a few decades we’ll all be saying “Doesn’t it seem like everyone is retiring?”