NORTHRIDGE — California women are increasingly delaying childbirth, and the trend is three times more likely among women ages 40 to 44, according to a study released Thursday.
The Public Policy Institute of California report also found that some women are giving up on having children altogether, at the highest rate in the state’s history: In 2006, 25 percent of women in their early 40s were childless, nearly double the rate in 1980.
“California does have a high rate of childlessness, but it’s hard to pinpoint why,” said report author Hans Johnson, noting that the state generally has higher wages, which may make women more likely to be at work.
Between 1982 and 2005, the birth rate for U.S.-born women ages 40 to 44 soared from 3.5 to 10.5 births per 1,000 women.
Still, because women who wait to have children account for only 5% of total births, and immigrants continue to form larger families, delays to childbirth have not had a significant impact on the state’s population or economy, Johnson said.
“The birth rate remains pretty stable,” he said. “It’s not high enough to cause a birth explosion, but it’s not low enough to cause a population decline.”
The report found that the propensity to give birth among women over 40 is highest among whites and Asians. This is enough to push the average age of childbirth for whites and Asians from the late 20s to the early 30s. The foreign-born population is boosting California’s economy and future workforce because they are having more children, Johnson said.
By comparison, U.S.-born Latina women most often have children in their early 20s. In general, Latina fertility rates are much higher than other ethnic groups, and foreign-born Latinas have the highest fertility rate in the state, at 3.7 children per woman.
“One of the reasons California and the United States doesn’t have the same aging problem as Europe is because we have immigrants with large families,” Johnson said. “That creates economic vitality and a young workforce.”
The decision to have children is increasingly one of economic, technological and social factors, Johnson and other sociologists say. Throughout history, birth rates have risen and fallen for a variety of reasons, including the emergence of the industrial economy, the Great Depression and the surge in births from 1946 to 1964 after World War II (forming the baby boomer generation).
“The women’s liberation movement succeeded in changing social norms, college admissions policies, and hiring practices, leading to more women completing college education and entering the professional world,” says Christiane Khoury, a sociology professor at California State University, Northridge. “And delaying childbearing is absolutely necessary for this to happen.”
Women may not be as established in their profession until their late 30s or early 40s, Khoury said. Then there’s the celebrity factor: Madonna gave birth to her second child at 41, and Halle Berry is also pregnant at 41.
“Women may see other women around them having healthy babies and think, ‘I can do that too,'” Khoury says. “This may also apply to celebrities. People are definitely influenced by the behavior of those around them.”
And cost of living could be another factor in the decision to delay having children, especially in Southern California, where most families need two incomes to buy a home, Khoury said. Childlessness is also tied to marital status, with 70% of children being born to married couples, meaning childlessness or delaying childbearing isn’t necessarily an option for many women, said Jane Prather, a sociology professor at California State University, North Carolina.
“Men are not willing to marry just to have children, and they are delaying marriage,” Prather says. “Men, in particular, are starting puberty later. They want to integrate work and play more. And they don’t want to get married until they’re financially stable. By the time they decide they want children, they’re marrying younger women.”
Dr. Jirair Koniarian, a fertility specialist who founded one of the first IVF programs in the United States in 1983 and is credited with completing the first surrogate birth on the West Coast in 1986, said many recent births are made possible by advances in technology and science.
But he still doesn’t advise women to wait too long, as they may face challenges as they get older.
“This trend has grown over the past decade,” the Northridge doctor said, “whether it’s a second marriage where the man and woman want to have children together, or the woman doesn’t want to marry the first man she meets. I tell my patients it’s desirable to start a family by age 35.”
One of his patients, a 37-year-old woman who did not want to give her name, said she didn’t choose to wait — she simply met the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with later than she expected.
“You want to figure out how a relationship is going to work before you have kids,” said a woman who is eight months pregnant with her first child, “but I don’t understand why women would wait if they don’t have to.”
Meanwhile, California is following a similar national trend, with the state’s birth rate among 15- to 19-year-olds reported to be declining from its peak of 74%.
In 1991, it was 1 in 1,000, but by 2005, it had fallen to 38 in 1,000.
The teen birth rate for African-Americans in California fell 63 percent, and for Latinos it fell 46 percent.
“This trend is very good news given that teenage childbirth has historically been accompanied by social, economic and health challenges,” Johnson said.
