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> and my wife was 38 at the time of conception. This sounds obvious, but apparently isn’t to a lot of younger people. 38 is considered quite old to start havi

by xienze 4y ago

> and my wife was 38 at the time of conception. This sounds obvious, but apparently isn’t to a lot of younger people. 38 is considered quite old to start having children (yes it happens, but it’s called a “geriatric pregnancy” for a reason), and I’m sure it contributed to the difficulties conceiving. A lot of young folks have been convinced that child birth can be put off more or less indefinitely while you pursue a career, but the longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes. Just another piece in the “gee, why are birth rates declining?” puzzle.

bpbp-mango 4y ago
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted for this, perhaps it's an uncomfortable truth.
Eleison23 4y ago
- dang 4y ago
  Please stop posting flamewar comments and ideological battle comments to HN. You've unfortunately done quite a lot of that. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
- LordDragonfang 4y ago
  Fertility rate is pretty much just correlated with GDP per capita until around $20k ppp, after which it levels out at just below fertility for basically the rest of the graph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility
atemerev 4y ago
Well here where I live, the median age for a woman giving birth is 42. The old normal is not normal anymore.
- Taurenking 4y ago
mrguyorama 4y ago
>A lot of young folks have been convinced that child birth can be put off more or less indefinitely Young folks haven't been convinced of shit, it's just literally not an option. Most young people are barely scraping by, can't buy a home, can't rent a medium sized apartment, have terrible health care, unreliable or unpredictable scheduling, etc etc. "Oh we made do in earlier times" Yes and a lot of the younger generations feel those scars every day, they feel the anxiety from not having enough money in the household, and develop scarcity mindsets that they will fight for the rest of their lives. Of course they don't want to do that to their own kids. Let alone even being in a relationship at all, one that's stable enough that you genuinely believe you will be together for at least 20 years. Young adults aren't putting off kids "to pursue a career", we are trying desperately to survive in a world that was picked clean by previous generations and kneecapped before we got a chance at it.

by xienze 4y ago

bpbp-mango 4y ago

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted for this, perhaps it's an uncomfortable truth.

Eleison23 4y ago

dang 4y ago
Please stop posting flamewar comments and ideological battle comments to HN. You've unfortunately done quite a lot of that. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
LordDragonfang 4y ago
Fertility rate is pretty much just correlated with GDP per capita until around $20k ppp, after which it levels out at just below fertility for basically the rest of the graph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility

atemerev 4y ago

Well here where I live, the median age for a woman giving birth is 42. The old normal is not normal anymore.

Taurenking 4y ago

mrguyorama 4y ago

>A lot of young folks have been convinced that child birth can be put off more or less indefinitely Young folks haven't been convinced of shit, it's just literally not an option. Most young people are barely scraping by, can't buy a home, can't rent a medium sized apartment, have terrible health care, unreliable or unpredictable scheduling, etc etc. "Oh we made do in earlier times" Yes and a lot of the younger generations feel those scars every day, they feel the anxiety from not having enough money in the household, and develop scarcity mindsets that they will fight for the rest of their lives. Of course they don't want to do that to their own kids. Let alone even being in a relationship at all, one that's stable enough that you genuinely believe you will be together for at least 20 years. Young adults aren't putting off kids "to pursue a career", we are trying desperately to survive in a world that was picked clean by previous generations and kneecapped before we got a chance at it.