Reproduction - Our Reproductive Patterns, Are We Breeding Enough To Sustain Our Numbers?, Women: Working 9 To 5 And Having Fewer Babies

Many factors influence the decision to have children. The very fact that we now decide whether or not to have a child is, in itself, a sign of the change in attitude about reproduction that has taken place over the 20th century.

The century saw two Baby Booms, one after each World War, the second being of epic proportions. The first two panels provide an overview of these two patterns. In the 1960s, reliable contraceptives became readily available and a sexual revolution followed. The fertility rate dropped sharply. The other panels in the chapter focus on the period since 1960 — as the Baby Boom generation comes of age.

The correlation between fertility rates (number of children born to 1,000 women of child- bearing age) and female participation in the workforce is analyzed in the third panel. At the end of the century, most women's magazines offered regular columns of advise on balancing work and family while Martha Stewart provided an ideal of domesticity that most women only dream about.

As the women of the Baby Boom reached childbearing age they decided to put off motherhood. Two panels look at the rising age of mothers and some side effects thereof; assisted reproductive technology (ART) and the rise of twins and higher order multiples.

Although the use of ART is on the rise, more women are trying to prevent pregnancy than to conceive. Always ready to oblige, we look at the most popular contraceptives. The next panel then reviews figures on abortion and its rise and fall since becoming legal nationwide in 1973.

Sharply rising rates of cesarean births are covered in the next panel. The explanation of this increase reminds us that having babies is still one of life's more physically challenging endeavors. Happily, both infant and maternal mortality rates are down.

Low birth weight babies are, however, on the rise. This is explained in another panel that also discusses the fact that low birth weight is one of the leading causes of infant mortality and disability. Other birth defects are covered in a separate panel.

The chapter ends on an upbeat note. We look at the dramatic decline in infant mortality over the last 50 years. As one of the most widely used indicators of a society's general health, it is reassuring to see that the infant mortality rate has fallen more than 400% from 1950 to 2000 — a trend that is going in the right direction.