12.3.3: Childbirth

 12.3.3: Childbirth 

As you have seen, the family adapts to social change. 

Because we never have a shortage of change in our society, marriage and family are in a continual process of change. 

In this context, let’s look at bearing children. 

Ideal Family Size 

The number of children that Americans consider ideal has changed over the years. 

You can track these changes in Figure 12.2. 

Look at the abrupt change that took place in the 1970s, how women suddenly decided that they preferred fewer children. 

What happened? 

Figure 12.2 The Number of Children Americans Think Are Ideal The following interactive is not accessible to keyboard and screen reader users. What follows is an explanation of what appears on the screen. Two lines show the change in the number of two and four children families.1. Two childrenThe graph shows year on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. It is shown that the percentage of two children families has increased from 36 percent in 1936 to 51 percent in 2018. The line decreases and increases slightly over time.2. Four plus childrenThe graph shows year on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. It is shown that the percentage of four plus children families has decreased from 64 percent in 1936 to 41 percent in 2018. The line decreases and increases slightly over time. Recall the emphasis of the sociological perspective introduced in Chapter 1, how historical events influence our lives. This abrupt change in ideal family size occurred in the context of three major events: the arrival of the birth control pill, the onset of the sexual revolution, and a fundamental change in how women viewed work—from a temporary activity before marriage to long-term careers. 

Sometimes our ideals change, but we are not able to put them into practice. As you can see from Figure 12.3, this was not the case with this shift in ideal family size. With the arrival of the birth control pill, there was a remarkable drop in births. 

Figure 12.3 The Remarkable Change in Two- and Four-Children Families SOURCE: Based on U.S. Census Bureau 2015. 1. Two children The graph shows year on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. It is shown that the percentage of two children families has increased from 22 percent in 1976 to 36 percent in 2014. 2. Four plus children The graph shows year on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. It is shown that the percentage of four plus children families has decreased from 36 percent in 1976 to 12 percent in 2014. If they had their way, some couples would specify not just the number of children but also their characteristics, the topic of the following Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape. Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape What Color Eyes? How Tall? Designer Babies on the Way Ready to shop for your child? You might begin by browsing the online catalogue of sperm donors at the London Sperm Bank. With a few clicks, you can check the donor’s race–ethnicity, eye color, hair color, and height—even the man’s religion, education, and TV preferences (de Lange 2014). Satisfied? Click “Add to Cart” and go to Check Out. Actually, they haven’t added those check-out clicks yet. But the list of donor characteristics is there. In the coming world of Designer Baby Clinics, you will be able to put in your order. Not like fast food, of course, because it will still take the usual nine months. The allure of choosing a daughter who will be a scientist, a son who will be musical—or a basketball star—is apparent. To pick superior qualities for your child, isn’t this like being able to pick a superior college? Moral Dilemmas But with this allure comes moral dilemmas. Let’s suppose that a couple wants a blue-eyed red-headed boy.

 As Figure 12.4 shows, the technicians will fertilize several eggs, test the embryos, and plant the one(s) with the desired characteristics in a uterus. And the embryos that are not used? They will be flushed down the toilet. Some people find this objectionable. Figure 12.4 On Our Way to Designer Babies SOURCE: Adapted from Naik 2009. Reproduced with permission. Photo Credit: Yatso/Shutterstock The details of the figure are as follows: A woman’s eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab, creating several embryos. A single cell is removed from each embryo, and then tested for biomarkers associated with females, green eyes, and blond hair. Only embryos with the biomarkers for the required traits are placed in the woman’s womb. The procedure virtually guarantees that the child will be female and increases the probability she will have green eyes and blond hair. Others are concerned that selecting certain characteristics represents a bias against people who have different characteristics. To order a tall designer baby, for example, is this a bias against short people? If it isn’t quite clear why this is a bias, perhaps this will help. If there is a preference for boys, a lot of female embryos will be flushed down the toilet. Or consider this: Two deaf parents want a deaf child. They fear that if their child is part of the hearing world it will drive a wedge between them (Fordham 2011). Would it be moral or immoral to produce a deaf child? Oh, the moral dilemmas our new technologies bring! For Your Consideration → One more moral issue to consider: a super race. If we can produce people who are superior physically, intellectually, and emotionally, would it be wrong to do so? Or would it be immoral not to do so if this is within our capacity? 

Marital Satisfaction after Childbirth Sociologists have found that after the birth of a child, satisfaction with the marriage usually decreases (Maas et al. 2015; Musick et al. 2016). 

To understand why, recall from Chapter 5 that a dyad (two persons) provides greater intimacy than a triad (after adding a third person, interaction must be shared). 

In addition, the birth of a child unbalances the life that the couple has worked out.

 To move from the abstract to the concrete, think about the implications for marriage of coping with a fragile newborn’s 24-hour-a-day needs of being fed, soothed, and diapered—while the parents’ sleep is disrupted and their expenses grow. Then when the last child reaches age 6, marital happiness increases. This is when the child starts school and is away from home a lot. This happiness is short-lived, though, and takes a nosedive when the child reaches age 12 or 13. You can figure this one out—the devil years of adolescence. But those years don’t last forever (although many parents think they will), and happiness increases again when the last child gets through the troubled, rebellious years (Senior 2010). Husbands and wives have children because of biological urges and because of the satisfactions they expect. New parents bubble over with joy, saying things like “There’s no feeling to compare with holding your own child in your arms. Those little hands, those tiny feet, those big eyes, that little nose, that sweet face …” and they gush on and on. 

There really is no equivalent to parents. It is their child, and no one else takes such delight in the baby’s first steps, first word, and so on. Let’s turn, then, to child rearing.