Vanishing Motherhood : Choosing to Be Childless

Vanishing Motherhood : Choosing to Be Childless

by Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 6:07pm

Patti Farrant is 67 years old in 2011. She gave birth to her baby in 2006 when she was 62. Most of the British and American women are delaying their motherhood in exchange for career and fun.

The average age of British mothers giving birth is now 31 !  The highest ever. While the number of women waiting until their 40s to have a baby has gone upto 7 per cent in one year and doubled in a decade to more than 22,000 annually.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-395281/Ive-come-senses-delayed-motherhood.html#ixzz1bDnVYV41

The Daily Telegraph posted an article regarding Motherhood in Britain and they admitted that financial insecurity is one of the reasons for delayed motherhood and more than half of the babies are born out of wedlock ! Jennifer Lopez who had twins at 38 In the mid to late 1950's, the median marriage age for women was 19 in Britain, then it was updated with The National Center for Health Statistics stating that in the 24 years between 1980 and 2004, the number of women giving birth at age 30 has doubled, at age 35, tripled and after age 40 has almost quadrupled. Forty is the new twenty.

Once Italy Greece and Spain were synonymous with fruitful families now they are tied for Europe's lowest birthrate" In Germany, where the childless rate is the highest in the world, at 25 percent, the best sellers lists have been full of tomes forecasting demographic doomsday .The average age of mothers at their first birth is steadily climbing in developed countries-from age 28 in Canada, Italy and France, to 29 in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan.

Now many women are regretting for the delay and many will regret after a decade or two and their governments too. Even Putin, The Russian president also declared that Russian population is declining by 7 lac a year ! demographers say that on an average, women must have two kids for a society to replace itself. But it is not so in Europe. The Greek mothers give only 1 .3 children per woman. The Newsweek May 29, 2006, said : By not having children, people are voting against their country's future and their own.

But which are the two Nations who have a large number of children ? The population of children 1-14 years in Saudi is 38 % of its total Population followed by India 31 %. No wonder in a decade when Europe will run short of youth,India and Saudis will be exporting their manpower to run these Nations. After all Allah calls kids as His blessings. Refer to Surah Nahl ch 16 verse 72: And Allah has made for you from yourselves mates and has made for you from your mates sons and grandchildren and has provided for you from the good things. Then in falsehood do they believe and in the favor of Allah they disbelieve?

Author : Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on socio-educational issues from Islamic perspective.. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com

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