Choices in Relationships

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CHAPTER 10 Planning for Children
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Chapter 10 Planning for ChildrenChapter Outline

• Do You Want to Have Children?
• How Many Children Do You Want?
• Teenage Motherhood
• Infertility
• Adoption
• Sterilization
• Abortion

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Chapter 10 Planning for ChildrenIntroduction

• Food for thought
• Among youth between the ages of 18 and 29
• 74 noted that they wanted to have children.
• 52 said that being a good parent was
  important.
• 30 said that having a successful marriage was
  important.

4
Social Influences Motivating Individuals to Have
Children

• Family
• Friends
• Religion
• Race
• Government
• Economy
• Cultural Observations

5
Pronatalism

• Attitudes that encourage childbearing
• Family, friends, religion, and government help
  develop positive attitudes toward parenthood.
• Cultural observances reinforce these attitudes.

6
Individual Motivations for Having Children

• Conscious motivations include
• The desire to love and to be loved by ones own
  child
• Companionship with ones own offspring
• The desire to be personally fulfilled as an adult
  by having a child

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Older Parents

• There are advantages and disadvantages of having
  a child as an elderly parent.
• The primary advantage is the amount of attention
  parents can devote to their offspring.
• The primary disadvantage is that parents are
  likely to die before, or early in, the childs
  adult life.
• There are also medical concerns for both mother
  and child during pregnancy in later life.

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Lifestyle Changes

• Daily living routines become focused around the
  children.
• Living arrangements change to provide space for
  another person in the household.
• Some parents change their work schedule to allow
  them to be home more.
• A major lifestyle change is the loss of freedom
  of activity and flexibility in ones personal
  schedule.

9
Financial Costs of Parenthood

• An uncomplicated birth, with a two-day hospital
  stay, may total 10,000.
• A cesarean section birth may cost 14,000.
• Annual cost of a child less than two years old
  for middle income parents (56,670 to 98,120),
  including housing, food, transportation,
  clothing, health care, and childcare, is 11,700.
  
• For a 15- to 17-year-old, the cost is 13,530.

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How Many Children?

• My mom used to say it doesnt matter how many
  kids you have . . . because one kidll take up
  100 of your time so more kids cant possibly
  take up more than 100 of your time.
• Karen Brown

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Childfree Marriage

• Childfree marriages may be viewed by society
  with
• Suspicion
• Avoidance
• Discomfort
• Rejection
• Pity

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Childfree Marriage

• Top five reasons given in Laura Scotts (2009)
  Childless by Choice Project for not having
  children include
• Life/relationship satisfaction
• Being free and independent
• Avoid responsibility of rearing a child
• Absence of maternal/paternal instinct
• Desire to accomplish and experience things in life

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One Child

• Only 3 of adults view the one child as the ideal
  family size
• Reasons for only one child
• Experience parenthood without children markedly
  interfering with ones lifestyle and career
• Difficulty in pregnancy or birthing the child
• Inability to get pregnant a second time

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Two Children

• Most preferred family size in the United States
  for non-Hispanic white women is the two-child
  family
• Reasons for only two children
• Feeling that a family is non-complete with less
  than two children
• Having a companion for the first child
• Having a child of each sex
• Repeating the positive experience of parenthood
  enjoyed with the first child
• Not wanting to put all their eggs in one basket

15
Three Children

• More likely if the couple already has two girls
  rather than two boys
• Each additional child reduces the amount of
  parental involvement and financial resources for
  that child
• Creates a middle child
• Neglected because of the attention given to the
  oldest and the baby

16
Multiple Children

• Hispanics are more likely to want larger families
  than are white or African American parents
• Four children may be the new norm for affluent
  families
• Competitive birthing

17
Choosing Ones Children

• What are the advantages and disadvantages to a
  couple having genetic testing before becoming
  pregnant?
• What are possible reasons for a couple to choose
  sex selection technology?

18
Teenage Motherhood

• Problems
• Stigmatized and marginalized
• Poverty among single teen mothers and their
  children
• Poor health habits
• Lower academic achievement
• Personal health and psychosocial adjustment

19
Teenage Motherhood in the Media

• Examples of teen motherhood
• 16 and Pregnant
• Teen Mom
• Secret Life of an American Teenager
• Juno
• Does the media encourage or discourage teen
  pregnancy?

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Types of Infertility

• Primary
• A woman has never conceived though she has had
  regular sexual relations for twelve months.
• Secondary
• A woman has previously conceived but is currently
  unable to do so even though she has had regular
  sexual relations for twelve months.
• Pregnancy Wastage
• A woman has been able to conceive but has been
  unable to produce a live birth.

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Causes of Infertility

• 40 of infertility problems are attributed to the
  woman.
• 40 of infertility problems are attributed to the
  man.
• 20 of infertility problems are attributed to
  both the man and woman.

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Causes of Male Infertility

• Low sperm production
• Poor semen motility
• Effects of sexually transmitted infections
• Interference with passage of sperm through the
  genital ducts due to an enlarged prostate

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Causes of Female Infertility

• Blocked fallopian tubes
• Endocrine imbalance that prevents ovulation
• Dysfunctional ovaries
• Chemically hostile cervical mucus that may kill
  sperm
• Effects of sexually transmitted infections

24
Assisted Reproductive Technology

• Hormone Therapy
• Artificial Insemination
• Artificial Insemination of a Surrogate Mother
• In Vitro Fertilization
• Ovum Transfer

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Routes to Adoption

• Public
• Private Agency
• Independent Adoption
• Kinship
• Stepparent

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Motives for Adoption

• Inability to have a biological child
• Desire to give an otherwise unwanted child a
  permanent loving home
• Desire to avoid contributing to overpopulation by
  having more biological children
• Less than 5 of couples adopt, and 15 of these
  adoptions will be children from other countries

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Adoption

• Demographic characteristics of people seeking to
  adopt a child white, educated, and high-income.
• Characteristics of children available for
  adoption healthy, white infants.
• Costs of adoption
• U.S. foster care system little or no cost
• Agency and private adoptions 5,000 - 40,000
• International adoptions 7,000 - 30,000

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Adoption

• Transracial Adoption
• Open versus Closed Adoptions
• Intercountry Adoptions
• Foster Parenting

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Children Who Are Adopted

• Outperformed non-adopted children
• Questions adopted children must deal with
• Who are your real parents?
• Why did your mother give you up?
• Are those your real parents?
• W.I.S.E. UP
• Walk away
• Ignore or change the subject
• Share what you are comfortable sharing
• Educate about adoption in general

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Sterilization

• Permanent surgical procedure that prevents
  reproduction
• Reasons for sterilization
• Should not have more children for health reasons
• When certain about the desire to have no more
  children or to remain childfree
• Risk of pill use at older ages and the lower
  reliability of alternative birth control methods

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Female Sterilization

• More than half of all sterilizations are
  performed on women.
• Types of female sterilization
• Oophorectomy
• Hysterectomy
• Salpingectomy
• Laparoscopy
• Essure

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Female Sterilization Tubal Sterilization
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Male Sterilization

• Male sterilization is easier and safer than
  female sterilization
• Vasectomy
• Most frequent form of male sterilization
• Safe and cost-effective intervention for
  permanent male contraception
• Procedure takes about fifteen minutes
• May be reversed with a 30 to 60 success rate

34
Abortion

• An induced abortion is the deliberate termination
  of a pregnancy through chemical or surgical
  means.
• A spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) is the
  unintended termination of a pregnancy.

35
Abortion Rates

• 1.21 million abortions performed in the U.S. in
  2008
• Abortion rate (number of abortions per thousand
  women aged 15 to 44) increased 1 between 2005
  and 2008
• 19.4 to 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women

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Who Gets Abortions and Why

• 1,209 pregnant women who reported having an
  abortion reported the following reasons
• 74 - The child would interfere with education,
  work, or ability to care for dependents.
• 73 - She could not afford a baby now.
• 48 - She did not want to be a single mother or
  was having relationship problems.

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Pro-Life Advocates

• Advocate restrictive abortion or a ban on
  abortion.
• General beliefs
• The unborn fetus has a right to live.
• Abortion is a violent and immoral solution to
  unintended pregnancy.
• The life of an unborn fetus is sacred and should
  be protected, even at the cost of individual
  difficulties for the pregnant woman.

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Pro-Life Advocates

• Characteristics of a pro-life advocate
• Over the age of 44
• Male
• Mothers of three or more children
• Married to white-collar workers
• Affiliated with a religion
• Catholic

39
Pro-Choice Advocates

• Support the legal availability of abortion for
  all women.
• General beliefs
• Freedom of choice is a central value.
• Those who must bear the burden of their choices
  ought to have the right to make these choices.
• Procreation choices must be free of governmental
  control.

40
Pro-Choice Advocates

• Characteristics of a pro-choice advocate
• Female
• Mothers of one or two children
• Some college education
• Employed
• Annual income of more than 50,000

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Physical Effects of Abortion

• Legal abortions, performed under safe medical
  conditions, are safer than continuing the
  pregnancy
• Post-abortion complications include
• Possibility of incomplete abortion
• Uterine infection
• Excessive bleeding
• Perforation or laceration of the uterus, bowel,
  or adjacent organs
• Adverse reaction to a medication or anesthetic

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Psychological Effects of Abortion

• For most women, a legal first-trimester abortion
  does not create psychological hazards, and
  symptoms of distress are within normal bounds.

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Partner Knowledge of and Support for Abortion

• Overwhelming majority of women report that the
  men with whom they got pregnant knew and
  supported the womans decision to have an
  abortion
• Cohabitating men were particularly supportive
• In a 2004 study, most men were happy with the
  decision of their partners to have an abortion

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Quick Quiz

• True of False? Most men of partners who had an
  abortion tended to regret the abortion.

45
Quick Quiz

• True or False? Children of donor sperm want to
  find more about their father due to economic
  motives.

46
Quick Quiz

• Pronatalism refers to which of the following?
• Sanctifying children to their religion
• Encouraging childbearing
• Encouraging stability regarding overpopulation
• Sexual values

47
Quick Quiz

• Demographic characteristics of people who
  typically adopt are
• white, educated, and high-income
• young, flexible, and idealistic
• families who want a child of a different sex than
  their own child
• older, gay, and single

48
Quick Quiz

• Which of the following is not a form of birth
  control?
• Vasectomy
• Salpingectomy
• Douching
• Laparoscopy