Population and Fertility Trends

Costs and Rewards

Economic costs (direct costs) and Opportunity costs (lack of flexible schedule)
85% of people said their relationship with their children was the most fulfilling
15% said their career

Childfree

The rate of childfree individuals has remained about the same, depending on the historical period
16% of women between the ages of 40 and 44
Hispanics least likely to be childfree

Infertility Issues

Surrogacy
- Unregulated legal issues such as abortion
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) includes all fertility treatments
In vitro fertilization
- Most common
- Ovulation stimulation drugs, eggs removed and fertilized in a dish with sperm, then implanted in uterus
- ¼ to ⅓ result in birth
- How many embryos should be implanted?

Childbirth

Stages of pregnancy
- First trimester (weeks 1-12): hormonal changes affect almost every organ system in the body
- Second trimester (weeks 13-28): many find worse symptoms going away, body changes
- Third trimester (weeks 29-40): more body change discomfort
Stages of labor
- First: cervix dilates, contractions
- Second: pushing and delivery, may have an episiotomy (cut)
- Third: delivery of placenta
Wait six weeks before exercise or sex
Medicalization of childbirth
- Around 33% of all US births are c-sections, which is a 50% increase since 2000
- Birth centers - facility that’s not a hospital
- Midwife- health care provider
- Doula- childbirth “coach”

Adoption

Closed- there is no interaction or identification between birth parents and adoptive families
Open- identity & contact information are shared between both parties
Gays and Lesbians
- Some states and organizations ban gay and lesbian adoption
- Ban lifted in Florida in 2010

Transition to Parenthood

Lack of sleep
Little experience in childcare
Change in relationship dynamic
Sometimes takes time to feel an emotional bond to child
Women more likely to suffer from post-partum depression when they feel lack of support

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 yrs)
- Motor activity without use of symbols. All things learned are based on experiences, or trial and error.
- Object permanence - knowing that an object still exists even if it’s hidden
Preoperational stage (2-7 years)
- Young children can think about things symbolically. The ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself.
- Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.
Concrete Operational stage (7-11 years)
- The beginning of logical or operational thought, the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically trying things out).
- Conservation - the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.
Formal Operational stage (11 years and over)
- The ability to think about abstract concepts and logically test hypotheses.

The Looking Glass Self

Created by Charles Cooley (1902)
We imagine how we must appear to others in a social situation.
We imagine and react to what we feel their judgment of that appearance must be.
We develop our sense of self and respond through this perceived judgments of others.

Social Learning Theory

The view that people learn by observing others
Agents of socialization - family, school, peers, and media
Social Class (Kohn)
- Social class is one of the strongest influences on what and how parents teach their children
- Working class parents, who are closely supervised and expected to follow orders at work, typically emphasize the importance of obedience and conformity
- Parents from the middle and professional classes, who have more freedom and flexibility in their work, tend to give their children more freedom to make their own decisions and to be creative

Stress and Families