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The article examines the phenomenon of women choosing voluntary childlessness in the context of Kazakh society. The article employs both empirical and theoretical evidence, the article examines how vulnerable the choice of voluntary childlessness is to social stigma in Kazakh society, where "motherhood" is considered mandatory, and how this affects women's daily lives. The study is based on a targeted quota sample of 15 women from Kazakhstan aged 20 to 55 who consider themselves voluntarily childless. The “snowbal” method was used to form the sample. The practical significance of the research results is based on women's decisions regarding the factors contributing to childlessness: the advantages of voluntary childlessness, the reasons for choosing childlessness were considered. At the same time, the study showed the variability of women's decisions to be childless depending on their age, marital status, health, level of education, and professional activity. A deep understanding of the phenomenon of voluntary childlessness ("childfree") in Kazakhstani society gives grounds to assume that it is possible to change life scenarios based on childlessness, and in the process of development as a person, childlessness is replaced by the parameter of forming a traditional family and rethinking the image of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent pronatalist policies in Hungary, the country has not boosted birth rates at the expected rate. Higher educated women still delay the transition to first birth, a smaller proportion of planned children are born than in Western European countries, and the level of childlessness has also been increasing. As a post‐socialist legacy, prevailing traditional family and gender norms strongly constrain the reconciliation of work and family roles, which can prevent women from realizing their childbearing intentions or drive them to live a childfree life. Qualitative studies about how the fertility decisions of women are formed are scarce, particularly in relation to male‐dominated high‐skilled professions, where the realization of family plans can be especially challenging. The present article explores the barriers to motherhood among female engineers. Results of 27 semi‐structured interviews with mainly childless female PhD students in 2014–2015 show that the women were subject to strong social expectations that negatively influenced their fertility plans. On the family side, these involve becoming a mother and being responsible for child care and household chores; on the work side, challenges include the knowledge‐intensiveness of jobs and a male career model that hardly tolerates the role of motherhood. As a result, the respondents had further delayed childbearing, forecast reconsidering family plans after first childbirth, and in one case, opted for voluntary childlessness. Women also reflected on how their fertility is at stake due to their postponed motherhood and the cumulative effects of hazardous laboratory work. Several intervention points are suggested to stakeholders.

Despite recent pronatalist policies in Hungary, the country has not boosted birth rates at the expected rate. Higher edu‐ cated women still delay the transition to first birth, a smaller proportion of planned children are born than in Western European countries, and the level of childlessness has also been increasing. As a post‐socialist legacy, prevailing tradi‐ tional family and gender norms strongly constrain the reconciliation of work and family roles, which can prevent women from realizing their childbearing intentions or drive them to live a childfree life. Qualitative studies about how the fertility decisions of women are formed are scarce, particularly in relation to male‐dominated high‐skilled professions, where the realization of family plans can be especially challenging. The present article explores the barriers to motherhood among female engineers. Results of 27 semi‐structured interviews with mainly childless female PhD students in 2014–2015 show that the women were subject to strong social expectations that negatively influenced their fertility plans. On the family side, these involve becoming a mother and being responsible for child care and household chores; on the work side, chal‐ lenges include the knowledge‐intensiveness of jobs and a male career model that hardly tolerates the role of motherhood. As a result, the respondents had further delayed childbearing, forecast reconsidering family plans after first childbirth, and in one case, opted for voluntary childlessness. Women also reflected on how their fertility is at stake due to their post‐ poned motherhood and the cumulative effects of hazardous laboratory work. Several intervention points are suggested to stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the problem of tolerance to children with parents over 40 years of age. A survey, conducted in 2017 among 164 pedagogical specialists from 10 primary schools to demonstrate the need for interaction between educational and social institutions to overcome deviations in children's behavior, has shown many different results. One of them, though comparatively at a lower rate, shows the following: some respondents believe that one of the reasons for the appearance of deviant behavior is when the child is raised by older parents. This provokes the author's interest in expanding research and finding the preconditions that make it difficult for a child which parents are over-40-years-old to adapt to social reality and / or cause this child to be rejected by its peers. The significance of the problem has increased many times since the number of these parents tends to become larger. The reasons for this are different and some will be discussed in this article. Whatever the reasons, however, the phenomenon of postponed parenting is a fact and changes social reality. The socio-pedagogical community must be prepared to manage with difficulties that arise from the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing evidence that advanced maternal age is a risk factor for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring. However, it remains unclear whether the altered brain programming induced by advanced maternal age is mediated by pre- or postnatal factors. Here, a mouse model was used to investigate whether pregnancy at advanced age may provoke behavioral and brain gene expression changes in offspring. Swiss Albino mice conceived by 3-month-old males and either 15-18-month-old (n = 11) or 3-month-old control females (n = 5), were delivered by cesarean section, fostered after birth by 3-month-old dams and subjected to a battery of behavioral tests. Furthermore, genome-wide mRNA expression was analyzed in the hippocampi of 4-month-old males offspring using microarrays. Offspring conceived by old mothers exhibited increased ultrasound vocalization activity during separation from the foster mother, increased anxiety-like behaviors in adult life, and altered patterns of hippocampal gene expression, compared to controls. These effects were not reversed by the postnatal maternal care provided by the young foster mothers, suggesting that the altered brain programming is already established at birth, consistent with prenatal effects related to maternal aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Women can now opt to bank their oocytes with the intention of increasing their chances of achieving a pregnancy after their fertility has declined. This exploratory study aimed to gain insight into how women, considering oocyte banking to circumvent age-related fertility decline, perceive this intervention.Material and Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in a Dutch university medical center and held in-depth interviews with women on the waiting list for oocyte banking. We recorded the interviews, transcribed them verbatim and used thematic analysis.Results: All women were financially independent and lived in single-person urban households. They opted for oocyte banking because they wished to share parenthood with a future partner rather than becoming a single parent. This strong desire was key in their interpretation of all aspects of the intervention. Women set aside information about the limited success rates and potential risks, as they were optimistic about their own prognosis, thought that the chances for success were equally likely as the chances it would fail, and because of "anticipatory regret". They perceived oocyte banking as a "helping hand" to achieve shared parenthood. Although women found the costs of the intervention high, they were willing to invest their money to increase their chances for shared parenthood.Conclusions: Oocyte banking allows women to circumvent age-related fertility decline. The prospect of potential shared parenthood overrules the perceived health risks and burden. Health professionals should take this into account when informing potential users of oocyte banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades the number of women having their first babies over the age of 35 in the United Kingdom has increased. Women’s timing of motherhood is invariably bound up with a discourse of “choice”, and in this paper we consider the role choice plays in the timing of motherhood among women who have been defined as “older” mothers. This article is based on data from 11 semi-structured interviews that explored the transition to motherhood among “older” middle-class mothers. The interviews were analysed using critical discursive psychology. The women drew upon two dominant repertoires when making sense of their timing of motherhood. Within the first repertoire, “older motherhood as circumstance”, older motherhood was presented as the outcome of life circumstances beyond their control, with a lack of the “right” circumstances facilitating “delayed” motherhood. Within the second repertoire, “older motherhood as readiness”, women constructed themselves as (now) prepared for motherhood. “Readiness” was bound up with notions of self-fulfilment, yet also assessments of their ability to be “good” mothers. We conclude that, far from a straightforward choice, the timing of motherhood is shaped by cultural definitions of the “right” circumstances for parenthood, but also cultural definitions of “good” motherhood, which may define when women are “ready”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many studies have examined the pregnancy and health-related outcomes of delayed motherhood for women, less is known concerning the potential consequences for their children. This study aims to investigate the effect of delayed motherhood on the hippocampus at the whole genome level. Sprague-Dawley rat females, either at the age of 3 or 12 months, were individually housed with a randomly selected 3-month-old male. The rat whole genome expression chips were used to detect gene expression differences in the hippocampus of newborn rats. The gene expression profile was studied through gene ontology and signal pathway analyses. qRT-PCR was used to determine the mRNA expression of solute carrier family 2 (SLC2A1) and S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (SKP2). Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of SKP2. Compared to the control group, 1291 differentially expressed genes were detected, including 635 up-regulated genes and 656 down-regulated genes. These differential expressed genes were involved in 110 significant biological process and nine significant signaling pathways, in which the pathway in cancer is the most changed pathway. For SKP2 (up-regulated) and SLC2A1 (up-regulated) genes which were relevant to the pathway in cancer, qRT-PCR results were consistent with gene chip assay results. The upregulation of SKP2 was also demonstrated at protein level. In conclusion, delayed motherhood led to unique patterns of hippocampal gene expression in offspring and the newly identified genes afford a quantitative view of the changes which enable deeper insights into the molecular basis underlying the role of delayed motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazil a growing number of women are postponing motherhood until after their mid-30s. This phenomenon seems to be related to the woman's level of education and her entrance into the labor market, factors which demand the delay of motherhood. Some studies show that women over 35 years old have a certain difficulty in assuming the role of mothers. The purpose of this work is to review the literature regarding the concepts of "delayed motherhood" and "ambivalence", investigating the possible connections between these topics and the psychological alterations of the puerperium. It was verified that in delayed motherhood the adaptation period to the newborn is experienced with a higher ambivalence by the mother. Influenced, above all, by a cultural imposition that presumes the unconditional love for their children, women that delayed motherhood have difficulty balancing aspects of their well established lives and the new functions they need to perform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades the number of women becoming pregnant later on in life has markedly increased. Medical experts have raised concerns about the increase in the number of women having babies later, owing to evidence that suggests that advancing maternal age is associated with both a decline in fertility and an increase in health risks to both mother and baby. In recognition of these risks, experts have warned that women should aim to have their children between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. As a consequence, women giving birth past the age of thirty-five have typically been positioned as “older mothers.” In this paper we used a social constructionist thematic analysis in order to analyse how “older mothers” are represented in newspaper articles in the British press. We examined how the topics of “choice” and “risk” are handled in discussions of delayed motherhood, and found that the media position women as wholly responsible for choosing the timing of pregnancy and, as a consequence, as accountable for the associated risks. Moreover, we noted that newspapers also constructed a “right” time for women to become pregnant. As such, we discuss the implications for the ability of women to make real choices surrounding the timing of pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a conference presentation on youth and the meanings and forms of citizenship, hosted by the University of Porto. My contribution draws upon a five year study of motherhood in the UK. «Making of Modern Mothers» explores what it means to become a mother and how this can be understood as a moment of identity change. Focusing on the young mothers, a central argument is that motherhood is a site of new social divisions between women. Within this context young motherhood makes sense when we understand what's happening to motherhood generally. The paper outlines the contours of the project, including the starting points and policy concerns that formed the backdrop to the study. The main body of the paper considers: new motherhood in late modernity; the research design; representations of pregnancy and motherhood; key findings and defining features of young motherhood. The paper concludes with a discussion of two biographical case studies of young mothers who participated in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative study, stepmothers' ideas regarding motherhood and the role played by these ideas in their roles as mother and stepmother were investigated in Chile. For this purpose, 17 women who formed a couple with men who had children from previous relationships were interviewed. The results indicate the importance of motherhood as a life project and the prescriptive nature of mythology on motherhood sustained by the women interviewed concerning the care and responsibility for the children and the nature of the affective bond that links them to the children and affects the definition of their roles inside their stepfamily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motherhood - at least in Western countries - is perceived more as the result of a free choice than an inevitable destiny. Women can and simultaneously must choose if, when and how they become mothers. However, full control over reproduction is an illusion. Women have to consider many factors beyond their control - in addition to their individual desire to have a child, women must take into account the socially and culturally defined conditions of motherhood and biological limits of reproduction. Efforts to fulfil the expectations of being a good mother can lead to prolonging the period of temporary childlessness, which can result in permanent childlessness. Our research compares two groups of women experiencing a situation in which their desire to have a child was not consistent with the other conditions of motherhood. The first study is focused on women who delayed motherhood because of an absence of a partnership. The second study deals with women who suffer from infertility. The paper poses the following question: How is the norm of being a good mother defined and redefined when its fulfilment is not possible? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In the industrialized world, the mean age at which mothers give birth to their first child has increased. The purpose of this article was to review the available evidence in order to optimize preconception care in women who have postponed childbearing to the later years of the reproductive life cycle. Methods: Review of literature. Results: There is a paucity of evidence and rigorous studies to advise mothers on the potential interventions for optimizing pregnancy outcome. Conclusions: Evidence-based guidelines for advising women who postponed childbearing are scant, and further research in this important area is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The people of India have diverse ethnic, socio-cultural backgrounds. The religious practices of these people are spread over a wide canvas in which almost all the major religions of the world are represented. Hindus comprise the majority of the Indian population. Such population diversity makes it difficult to identify a single common Indian viewpoint on the moral and philosophical aspects of assisted reproduction. However, India has national guidelines in place that cover most of the ethical and legal aspects of assisted reproduction. This article highlights some of these aspects of the Indian viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]