Changing Patterns of Family Life: Child-Bearing

Changes to child-bearing in the UK:

• According to the ONS, there were 657,00 live births in the UK in 2018 a 9.9% decrease since 2012 and the lowest since 2005

• 51.6% of those were to married couples, the biggest decrease since 1973

• Fertility rates decreased in all age groups, except for women aged 40 years and over, in 2018

Decreasing child-bearing:

• Changing roles of women in society

• Improved contraception

• Delaying child-bearing

• Costs of child-bearing

Changing roles of women:

• Women are becoming more involved in Higher Education and delaying marriage and children until later in life

• Career aspirations of women have led to a decrease in fertility rates of all women under the age of 40- suggesting that women are waiting longer to have children

• Increased career aspirations means women are less likely to have larger families as they want to progress within their careers

Improved contraception:

• The availability and effectiveness of contraception and family planning methods allow women to have greater control over when they have children

• The availability of contraception on prescription and new technologies associated with contraception has increased the efficiency of protecting from unwanted pregnancy

• Male contraception has increased as a result of awareness campaigns into sexually transmitted diseases

Delaying childbearing:

• Greater individualism in lifestyles has meant that couples are more likely to wait until later in life to have children

• Career progression, insecurity of relationships and uncertain employment all impact the decision to have children

• The group with the highest fertility rate is 30-34 in 2018- in 1964 it was 25-29, marginally followed by the 20-24 age group

Costs of child-bearing:

• Hirsch suggested that the economic cost of raising a child is more than £150,000- with precarious employment and higher costs of living, people may opt to have fewer children

• Social costs to parents of having children are also a factor, impacting the choices parents can make and their leisure and career aspirations

• The rise of a child-centred society can impact the costs of raising children

Births outside of marriage:

• Births outside of marriage account for over 48% of live births in 2018- not all lone parents

• Cohabiting couples and changing attitudes to marriage impact this figure

• Reduction in social stigma attached to being born outside of marriage