Which career first?: Women don't want it all, but they may want children

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.846-b

BMJ 2005;331:846 (8 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.846-b

Letter

Which career first?

Women don't want it all, but they may want children

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The use of the phrase "epidemic of pregnancy inmiddle age"¹ is loaded with value judgments and implies thatpregnancy in middle age is akin to a disease. An epidemic bydefinition is a widespread occurrence of an infectious diseasein a community at a particular time or a sudden, widespreadoccurrence of an undesirable phenomenon. In the words of Bewleyet al,¹ most pregnancies in women older than 35 have good outcomes.Childbearing late in life carries "risk," but risk itself isnot a disease, and there is little evidence that women in generalare unaware of these risks, particularly those who elect tohave children later in life.

Bewley et al are right to target social and economic conditionsinfluencing women's reproductive choices but give no evidenceto substantiate their sweeping judgment that "women want itall." The probable truth is that women or couples turn . . . [Full text of this article]

Ray Noble, co-director

Centre for Reproductive Ethics and Rights, University College London, London WC1E 6BT r.noble@ucl.ac.uk