American women are waiting until later in life to have children, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This matches trends in Canada, where birth rates for women in their 30s and early 40s rose in 2012, while birth rates for teens and young adults dropped to record lows in the United States. For women aged 30 to 34, birth rates increased by one percent in 2012 to about 97 births per 1,000 women.
For women aged 35 to 39, birth rates jumped by 2 percent, while among women aged 40 to 44, birth rates increased by one percent. About 300,000 babies were born to teens last year, less than half of the 645,000 that were born to teenagers back in 1970.
According to recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, British and German women are delaying motherhood for longer than women in other countries, with the average age at which a British and German woman starts a family being 30.
The average age of women giving birth in the US is 25, while French women usually have their first child at 28.5. Scandinavian women typically start their families at age 28, the data showed.
One study linked giving birth to happiness, claiming that having children is not always a determinant of being happy. "Whether a woman has had children or not isn't likely to affect her psychological well-being in later life," said University of Michigan sociologist Amy Pienta. "What is more important is whether or not she has a husband, a significant other or close social relationships in her life as she ages."
Pienta, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research, is co-author of a study analyzing the implications of childlessness, birth timing and marital status on women's psychological well-being in late midlife.
