Is anyone actually having babies anymore?

Is anyone actually having babies anymore?

The global birth rate is decreasing, which shows us that, yes, people are having fewer babies.

But why is this happening?

And why are more and more women choosing to freeze their eggs or deciding to start a family without a partner through IVF treatment?

Some even claim that ‘starting a family without a partner is easier’.

Well, are non-traditional paths to parenthood the future? And how do men feel about it all?

Fertility Concerns

First, let’s talk about fertility.

‘'Replacement level fertility rate ’’, is a technical term, for the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next.

In developed countries, replacement-level fertility can be taken as requiring an average of 2.1 children per woman.

Fertility rates, which measure the number of children born per woman of childbearing age, have been gradually falling across the world and more than halved since 1963.

However Births in England and Wales: 2023 release shows that the total fertility rate within these regions has fallen to its lowest level on record, at 1.44 children per woman.

The lowest level on record.

So yes, even if your Instagram feed is convincing you that all your mates from school are having babies, I promise, not everyone is.

Conversations around fertility and when to start a family, might not be something you give much thought to in your early 20s. Particularly conversations surrounding IVF or egg freezing.

I mean, with the endless list of things the internet tells us our priorities should be, do we need to add even MORE adulting thoughts to the list?

Well, with a rise in women experiencing gynaecological problems, whether you’re comfortable hearing about it or not, fertility is becoming a conversation women are being pushed to think about earlier in their lives than expected.

Actress Florence Pugh spoke candidly on the Dear Media’s She MD Podcast, about how her recent diagnosis with polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis made her realise that this new change to her lifestyle has made her be proactive and think ahead into the future,”.

Florence – like so many of us, was not aware of the impact of PCOS and just how common health concerns like this are becoming.

For example, did you know that the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that PCOS affects up to 13% of reproductive-aged women, which equates to 3 million women in the UK? And in 2022 in the United States, an estimated 5 to 6 million women are documented to have PCOS which was considered the most common cause of infertility.

Because of her diagnosis, at 27, Florence decided to freeze her eggs.

Egg freezing is one way of preserving a woman’s fertility so she can try to have a family in the future.

It involves collecting a woman’s eggs, freezing them and then thawing them later on so they can be used in fertility treatment.

Which in the UK  has become increasingly prevalent.

Egg-freezing and storage increased from 2,576 cycles in 2019 to 4,215 in 2021 - a 64% increase in just two years.

How do men feel about this all?

But women taking this sense of agency over their bodies is not only down to egg freezing.

According to data released by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority the number of single UK women having fertility treatment has more than trebled in the past decade.

This means more and more women are deciding to start a family without a partner.

That’s a lot of independent mama’s walking this earth.

Within these findings, some women expressed they felt single parenthood is liberating and having a sense of ‘shame’ around it is holding women back.

But why are women choosing to do it solo? And how did the shift from single parenting being a taboo to being instead more accepted and embraced contribute to its rise?

So in this new era of babymaking, where it no longer seems to take two to tango, where do men fit into all of this?

Recent research has found that it’s more likely to be men who aren’t able to have children even if they want children.

Have you ever heard the term social infertility?

And why are more men falling into this category than women?

Let me explain.

Social infertility is a term for people who are unable to have children for social reasons.

This could be financial reasons or an inability to find a partner, not because they don't want to have children or biological reasons.

For some, this is a choice.

For others, it is the result of biological infertility, which affects one in seven heterosexual couples in the UK.

Dr. Robin Hadley wanted to have kids but for a number of social reasons, he didn’t.

He wrote a book about it called  -

How Is A Man Supposed to be a Man?: Male Childlessness - a Life Disrupted.

He has researched this area and he says that it is affecting men badly.

Robin thinks there is a myth out there that women want kids much more than men.

Like most countries, the UK doesn’t have good data on male fertility because they only take the mother’s fertility history when registering a birth. This means that childless men do not exist as a recognised “category”.

Vicent Straub, who studies men’s health and fertility at the University of Oxford, believes we should focus on fertility as a men’s health issue and discuss the benefits of caregiving to fathers.

That’s despite mountains of evidence that nurturing a child is good for men’s health.

So whilst opportunity for women to be more empowered in taking ownership over their bodies, is it possible that the conversation around how men feel about this is equally important?

Society is evolving, whether we like it or not.

Tiktoks the new Vine, I still miss texting on BBM and aren’t we all still mourning the OG’s British YouTube group?

However, when it comes to fertility and starting families these choices are becoming increasingly normalized.

This movement reflects not only advancements in reproductive technology but also a broader push toward female empowerment and independence in family planning.