V - Other Aspects of Motherhood Postponement

Summary

The main emphasis of this discussion is on the aspects of modernization and tradition as reflected in the wives' attitudes and behaviour concerning the meaning of marriage in their lives and motherhood postponement. Such aspects have been dealt with in the preceding pages. The original study included several other aspects assumed to be associated with the decision to delay parenthood, for example, the wife's perception of the decline in her own fertility and her perception of health risks for mother and child in late pregnancies. As these two are secondary aspects in the context of this presentation, it is sufficient to describe only the most salient findings.

As originally assumed, the perceptions of health risks and diminished fertility influenced, albeit weakly, the decision on postponement. Forty per cent of the women who did not see major health risks waited for three years or more to have their first child, compared to only 28 per cent of those who did believe that it was risky for their own or their babies' health to postpone the first child. It was also found that women who saw age and declining fertility as the main disadvantages of delayed motherhood, were more likely to believe that health risks were high, compared to wives for whom the major disadvantages of postponement were mounting family or in-laws pressure to have a child or marital problems (when the husband disagreed with the wife's desire to postpone having the first child).

Finally, some background characteristics of the wives had an impact upon the postponement decision. One such characteristic was the educational level of the wife and the couple's monthly income: the higher the level of formal education and income, the more inclined the wives were to use contraceptives. The influence of education upon parenthood decisions is well documented; the wife's education has been found to influence not only the timing of the first child but also the spacing of subsequent children.