Which career first?: Financial and social reasons should have been taken into account

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.846-c

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

Letter

Which career first?

Financial and social reasons should have been taken into account

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

EDITOR—I wonder about society's motives behind the editorialby Bewley et al and whether there are vested interests.¹ Couldit be that the government is worried about a falling birth rateand thinks that older women will fail to have as many childrenas they would if they were younger? If that's the case thereare already far too many people in this country, so it can onlybe a good thing.

Women who put off having children until later in life—whetherby choice or circumstance—tend to be better educated andbetter informed. We don't need to be "nannied" and told aboutthe risks, etc: we already know—it is well documentedand common sense.

If we are leaving having children until later we often do sofor financial reasons, but successive governments have createdthese. Just living from day to day is hard enough, and manyyoung couples . . . [Full text of this article]

Lindsey C Harris, web designer

Poole, Dorset, BH14
lindsey.harris@virgin.net