Amelia Grant

I am Amelia Grant, journalist, and blogger. I think that information is a great force that is able to change people’s lives for the better. That is why I feel a strong intention to share useful and important things about health self-care, wellness and other advice that may be helpful for people. Being an enthusiast of a healthy lifestyle that keeps improving my life, I wish the same for everyone.

Not a Duty, but a Choice: 5 Reasons Not to Have Children

To have children or not is a difficult decision. Unfortunately, in our society, it is often taken under pressure from others, the influence of stereotypes, or simply by inertia. We support motherhood, but we want the birth of children to be a free choice, not a duty. Here are just a few reasons why becoming a mother is not necessary.

 

5 Reasons Not to Have Children

 

1. The planet does not need one more child

Look at the world population. When I started writing this sentence, there were 7,690,999,676 people on Earth. While I was completing this phrase, it increased by another 180 people. For the population of the planet to reach 1 billion, it took people more than 200 years. Over the next 200 years, it has risen to 7 billion. Now every year more than 90 million people appear on Earth.

 

While the number of people on the planet is growing at a frantic pace, its natural resources are being depleted. Earth is not able to feed so many living beings, and each new child monstrously increases our carbon print on the planet. To some, such reasoning may seem to be too global, but look around - the problems of debris accumulation, lack of clean water, pollution of the atmosphere are no longer a scientific horror story, but a reality that is hard to ignore.

 

2. Your career may suffer

To fall out of professional life for 1.5-3 years at the most productive age is a psychologically difficult test. With maternity leave, you can not predict how your career will develop, how long a child will take. Of course, motherhood does not necessarily mean the end to your career, many succeed in career developing after the birth of babies. But, if you don’t want to risk self-realization, this is quite a good reason not to hurry with children.

 

3. Raising a child is expensive

In addition to physical and emotional cost, the child requires a lot of financial resources. Considering the level of salaries, you should be prepared that in the next 18 years, most of the earnings will have to be spent on raising a child. If you consciously take this step, you should come up with more serious arguments than “all give birth, and I should too.”

 

4. The child will not make you a more valuable woman

Unfortunately, in our society, childbearing is still considered almost the only purpose of a woman. But you do not need to put yourself at risk, go through physical and moral difficulties and radically change your life to prove to the world that you are full. Moreover, as practice shows, the world is never satisfied: after the birth of the first child, the questions follow: “When is the next one?”. And every passer-by tries to assess what kind of mother you are.

 

5. The child will not be a guarantee of loneliness

Children should not become an attempt to diversify the marriage, to avoid a lonely old age or to gain some meaning in life. Any of these reasons are too unreliable: the child violates sex life and alienates partners; it will not necessarily be close after he grows up, and certainly, it should not be the only reason for your existence.

 

Birth Control Options

While condoms help prevent both STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and pregnancy, other forms of birth control (also called contraception) only help prevent pregnancy. While you may choose different forms of birth control, remember that condoms are the best form of protection against STIs as well.

 

Plan B

If you’ve had sex and didn’t use any type of birth control, or if the birth control you used failed, you have the option of emergency contraception up to three days afterward. Plan B-One Step prevents pregnancy for up to 72 hours (3 days) after having unprotected sex. It is not intended for regular use and does not protect you from STIs or HIV.  You can’t use it if you are already pregnant. In this case, only the option of abortion clinics may help.