It is a well-known fact that delayed childbirth has become the norn in recent years. Several factors have driven this trend, which is not without potential problems.
There are two main reasons why individuals have increasingly chosen to delay having births. First, since more women have joined the workforce and have been working longer hours, they have inevitably allocated less time for their family life. A majority of Japanese female workers, for example, are now spending at least 8 hours at their office, leaving them little time left for dating and getting married, let alone having a baby. Second, due to the rapidly growing costs of childcare, many have to rethink their decision of welcoming an additional member to their family, especially in their young adulthood when they have yet to achieve financial security. In fact, the expenses of feeding a newborn, tending to a toddler and raising a school-aged child have risen so dramatically that young couples with limited budgets have turned to contraceptive measures to delay their parenthood until their late 30s or even 40s.
Several negative implications of putting off childbearing can be anticipated. By being in pregnancy in older ages, the women’s body would ensure the best health conditions to be responsible for carrying a baby and delivery. Many reseachs have shown that if a woman having the fisrt time of childbirth after 35 years old, it will increase various potential complications for both the mother and the baby, for example preeclampsia, diabetes, preterm delivery, fetal death, ect. Furthermore, if young people are delaying marriage and are reluctant to give birth, which is risking a population crisis for the country in the future. As the chance of success infertility in older women decreases with age, the later a woman becomes pregnant, the fewer children are born. This could lead to the decline in the number of working-age people and adverse impacts on country’s economy.