So why are more people only having 1 child today. Here are some of the most common answers:

1. Financial security - it’s simple math.

2. Children are an enormous time commitment - more children, more time.

3. 1 child is more manageable. I can personally attest to the chaos that reins when there are 3 children in the household. My 3 closest friends each have 3 children.

4. Children from multi-child families who felt they could never measure up to an older sibling are having only children.

4. Women are getting married later having already established themselves in a career - it is part of their identity. They don’t want to completely switch gears from career woman to stay at home mom. I had my first child at 32, having already worked at a pharmaceutical company for 7 years. I loved the industry and wanted to stay connected to it.

6. Women who are getting married in their 30’s and 40’s know themselves better than women in their early 20’s. They are less inclined to follow the advice of others and more inclined to make their own decision and stick to it.

7. Women have all their eggs at birth. The longer they wait to have children, the bigger the chance of having a miscarriage or a child with developmental defects. For example, the occurrence of Down’s Syndrome dramatically increases in the 3o’s. A woman at 35 has a 1 in 350 chance; a woman at 40 has a 1 in 40 chance. Many women are happy to have 1 healthy child and are unwilling to “press their luck.”