Category Archives: Assignment 1

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/25/us-children-report-idUSTRE65O53O20100625      

I wanted to know why some women do not want children. When I was doing research I found an article by Daniel Lippman who explained why more women decide not to have children these days.  Since we are in the 21^st century women do not feel the big pressure anymore to have children. The tradition has always been the same: Women get married and have kids; However, according to the article this no longer the norm.  Also, couples want to enjoy their lives to the fullest; they do not want to deal with the giant responsibility of raising children.  Some people believe that children are not the most important element for a successful marriage. Statistically, only 41% of adults think that children are necessary in marriage compared to 65% in 1990. Education is an important factor when it comes to not having kids, according to Lippman the more educated a women is the less likely she will be to have children.  In my opinion I think this is primarily because women want time to study and focus in their professions.  Children may just break their plans because they will need to get a good babysitter for them, and they will need to spend a lot of time with them.  As a result, the rate of childless women has increased because more educated women decide to postpone having children at older ages than the less educated ones.

I think that is better to wait to have children when you’re older, because you will have more responsibility, money and time for your child. A lot of us want to enjoy our life to its fullest and then have children in our late 20’s or early 30’s.  Children can cause too much stress plus we do not want to go to the extreme pain of labor.

The case against having kids

http://sciencebasedparenting.com/2009/01/19/a-skeptical-look-at-lotus-birth/
When I was doing research on natural childbirth, I encountered a new fad, the Lotus Birth. Although it is still small, and practiced mostly in birthing centers and in at-home births, it confirms a few of Margaret K. Nelson’s points in her research article from this week’s reading.
Nelson asserts that middle class women are often advocates of more natural childbirth and that they educate themselves about birthing possibilities. What happens in a Lotus Birth is that, instead of having the umbilical cord cut and the placenta thrown away after birth, the midwife or doctor leaves them both attached and they are left to fall off naturally over the next few days.
The Lotus Birth is certainly appealing to middle class and upper class families, because as Margaret Nelson found, they are more likely to want natural births and will latch on to any practice that claims to give their babies even a small advantage in life. The research blog that I found on Lotus Birth states that it can help to transmit nutrients to the newborn for a longer period of time, but also that it is unnecessary to keep the placenta attached for that long. I find it interesting that this could actually catch on with upper and middle class classes, since the few pictures I’ve seen of a baby with an attached placenta are not appealing, but now that I read Nelson’s article, I do not find this surprising at all. When something is “new” and “natural,” with any supposed health benefits attached to it, there will certainly be people willing to try it, and the upper and middle classes will lead the way.

In this article from ABC Nightline, we are introduced into a growing trend of gay Hollywood couples using surrogacy to become parents. Openly gay and now legally married celebrities such as actor Neil Patrick Harris and director Todd Holland have both opted to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the perfect surrogacy experience. A popular Los Angeles based surrogacy agency “Growing Generations” says that about 75 percent of their clientele are gay couples. The cost of surrogacy at this agency runs from $125,000 to $200,000. Gay couples can often feel as if they are ‘online shopping’ for egg donors, who must create a profile to include education, ethnicity and occupation as well as a video clip of themselves for potential couples to ‘buy’ their eggs. This agency differs from most in the fact that the egg donor and the surrogate mother must be different women in a hope that the surrogate mother will not become attached to the baby since there is no biological connection. Surrogates must go through psychological screening and preparation to prove she is fit for the job and understands the consequences.  However, such a complex process is never easy, especially when insurance and two women with different roles are involved. In the case of director Todd Holland, his surrogate was carrying three viable embryos, and insurance only covered two babies. The insurance company suggested they abort one of the embryos simply to save money. However, the surrogate mother used her own insurance, which was able to pick up the remaining bill and the couple now has three healthy children. This article is interesting in showing how even something such as surrogacy has a ‘top of the line’ agency which advocates for rich and celebrity clients. I feel this article was realistic in that it showed that problems do arise and politics such as insurance coverage often try to undermine the process as a whole. It overall shows surrogacy in a positive light since gay couples are not only able to have the gift of children, but they are able to choose the egg donor and surrogate that best fits their needs.