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The 'child-free by choice' brigade wave bye, bye baby
Meet the women who have decided to dodge baby sick and nappies by remaining child-free
Forty years ago it was expected that if you were married and you could have children, you would. Today, thousands of women are making the decision not to have children, choosing instead to pursue their careers, maintain their own lifestyles and live life just as they please.
In an interview with the BBC, Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics acknowledges attitudes are changing.
She says: 'The whole idea of the child-free lifestyle is beginning to be recognised by the media. Private feelings are being legitimised and people are beginning to feel that they are not being deviant in some way.'
A report by the Office for National Statistics revealed that a quarter of women in their thirties would still not have had children at the age of 45, although it did not state what percentage of these would be involuntarily childless. Nicki Defago's book, Childfree and Loving It! estimates that one in five women in the UK will decide not to become mothers, while a website dedicated to the child-free, www.kiddingaside.net, puts the figure of western couples who choose not to have kids as high as 16-18 per cent.
Making the choice
For iVillager gatoula2004 the decision was fairly straightforward because she never liked children. She says: 'I suppose a conscious decision to remain child-free was made when I was 31. I married when I was 29 and two years later my husband left. I think this threw some light on my attitude to having children.'In terms of having kids, it didn't bother me at all that at 31 I was on my own, because I realised that I'd never had any intention of becoming a mother. At the same time, a lot of my peers were having their first baby. Watching what they were going through only confirmed that my decision was the right one for me.'
iVillager cl-sallydownunder has a long-term partner of 14 years and neither of them want children. She says: 'I always assumed I would have kids but spent most of my twenties trying not to get pregnant and avoiding the issue. I spent a great deal of my early teens and twenties around kids as I was a nursery nurse, so I had an idea of what bringing up a child would entail and how full-on it really is. I always stated that being a nanny was the best form of birth control!'
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