My husband and I just had our fourth child and it was finally a girl! She was born last Thursday, March 30 and she weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces. She was four weeks early. We also have three boys ages 10, 6 and 3.
Anyway, my question is how many pregnancies are too many? I would love to have another baby in a few years. (All of our children are 3-4 years apart in age and I will only be 30 in September). We have also never had a miscarriage or a stillborn. Is there a point where someone should quit? I'm still a pre-nursing student, so I don't know the answer to that. My husband and I always wanted a large family (5 or 6 children), but I just wondered how often all of you maternity nurses saw that and if there were any type of problems associated if we continued to have children. As of now, I don't have any medical problems to indicate a potential problem and my husband and I are both young.
Too many is when your health suffers. When mama's health suffers, the entire family suffers; financially, emotionally, socially.
I have always admired women with large families. They are so organized!
Where I grew up it was mostly Catholic blue collar folks. Large families were considered the norm. I have 4 sibs and we were "small" in comparison to the families I grew up with!
I get the same look from people all the time:uhoh3: And since we had our three boys first and just recently now our girl, I get the "well, I guess you are finally done now that you got the girl". As if we only kept having children to get a certain gender, not because of the fact that we wanted another child! Needless to say, they are surprised to hear that yes, we still want another child even after the girl.
I got that after 2 boys, then a girl. We went on to have another boy. I guess to satisfy everyone else's quota, I'll have to have two more girls to make it even.
Not flaming you by any means, but who says the Earth can hold only ten billion? Where and how did they come up with that?
Fewer deaths? AIDS in Africa, anyone? And remember that more people live in the Third World than in the first, and their mortality rate is much higher than ours.
I always wonder about some "science". I honestly thought that idea went out with free love and Woodstock.
Wow. I think you need to get up to speed!
My husband is a PhD research scientist. One of the subjects he researches is the impact of our growing population on the earth.
Death rates are at all time lows- people are living longer than ever before. There are fewer farmers than there have been in 100s of years, yet more people to feed.
Even though mortality rates are high in many areas, birth rates are much higher.
Global warming is already having a serious impact, water and land shortages are on the horizon.
"The population in the world's 50 poorest countries will more than double by 2050. World Population 'to Rise by 40%'. The world's population is expected to rise from 6.5 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050 with the growth in the developing world. The population of developed countries will remain at 1.2 billion. India will be the world's most populous country by 2030......"
My husband and I believe that having no children is best. When people ask us how many children we have and we say "none" some people just do not know how to respond. In this hypernatalistic society, it never occurs to many people that there are other choices.
Our view is not politically correct, but cetainly our worlds populations are reaching critical mass.
Too many kids to feed and take care of is too many pregnancies.
You can have my share, kiddo, I never had any kids. If any of those ZPG folks harass you, just thumb your nose at them and tell them you've got somebody else's allotment, with her permission.
Multiple births may cause a need for things like bladder suspension down the line, but even that isn't a given.
Well, yes the earth is over-populated, and for that reason as well as the tragic numbers of children in foster homes awaiting a loving permanent home, the kindest, most socially responsible thing to do is adopt. That said, no one can tell you how to have and raise your family and as long as you can afford them and provide a warm, loving, disciplined home, have as many as you want via adoption or naturally conceived. Awfully brave of you to put this subject up for dicussion, by the way.
This is such a personal choice, that it can elicit a broad range of responses. I'm the oldest of ten. I have 6 children. My opinion is, if one can provide for their family, is in good health, and desires more children, power to them!!
The only time I feel someone should reconsider having more children is when someone is on welfare, has never held a job or tried to keep a job, and doesn't think twice about having more children because they know they have welfare to fall back on. I won't go into the welfare debate. It's there for those who need it, and there is no question that it is greatly abused at the same time.
As humbly stated, this is only my opinion
In response to the "over-population" debate, all I have to say is #1, China is taking care of that for us; #2, this is an excerpt from a small article I wrote years ago: "And then there's the people that look at me and are amazed that I had the audacity to produce five children. They look at me with contempt and utter scorn for having been so selfish as to have brought five whole new people into an already over-populated world. Yes, I admit it now, the over-population of the world is entirely my fault. The world was going just fine until I had my children. Then all hell broke loose. Crude oil became scarce. The ozone layer was depleted. Endangered species died out. Ice caps melted and caused mass flooding throughout the world. I would like to take this moment to humbly apologize for single handedly over-burdening the world.
Children have the right to be brought up with a loving mother and father who will nurture, love, protect, clothe, feed, educate and inspire them the become contributing members in society, there isn't a quantitative answer to your question, rather it is regarding qualitative family love.
I don't personally know you so you should both ask yourselves if you can provide all your children with loving parents, and you have the resources, the patience, the love and nurturing abilities then I think you should have what is right for both you and your husband.
May I just add God Bless You. the world can easily accommodate wonderful families to help steer, guide and inspire those who may struggle or be misguided in the world...
My husband and I just had our fourth child and it was finally a girl! She was born last Thursday, March 30 and she weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces. She was four weeks early. We also have three boys ages 10, 6 and 3.
Anyway, my question is how many pregnancies are too many? I would love to have another baby in a few years. (All of our children are 3-4 years apart in age and I will only be 30 in September). We have also never had a miscarriage or a stillborn. Is there a point where someone should quit? I'm still a pre-nursing student, so I don't know the answer to that. My husband and I always wanted a large family (5 or 6 children), but I just wondered how often all of you maternity nurses saw that and if there were any type of problems associated if we continued to have children. As of now, I don't have any medical problems to indicate a potential problem and my husband and I are both young.
Any input would be appreciated.
It is a completely personal (you and hubby) decision. I don't know about your health but that should weigh in. What about your ability to care for and love future children? How would additional children impact your career choice? And yes, please consider the impact on the earth. Sadly, I've seen women who relinquish the decision about their reproductive plans to cultures, husbands/boyfriends and other outside influences that don't have the WOMAN in mind. Listen to lots of people but make the decision yourself. Good luck in nursing and with your family.
Personally, I would NEVER carry the worlds burdens on my shoulders. Why would anyone give up having the joy of their own flesh & blood child to contribute to the non-overpopulating of the world? I dont believe all the crap out there about global warming, overpopulation, etc... For as many births,there are as many deaths...we will never be crowded out.
God has already planned out how the world will end... read the book of Revelation... He also said Be Fruitful and Multiply and he gave Man domion over the animals of the earth. That doesnt mean we can trash it, just that we can enjoy it and not put animals above us ---such as those environmentalist who will save a whale, but call abortion choice.
Basically, enjoy the life that was given by God and dont worry about the future thousands of years from now. Just prepare yourself for your own death afterlife - either Heaven (accepting Christ) or Hell (Not accepting Him)
There is no such thing as too many babies---provided you can care for them all both emotionally and financially. It only becomes a problem when you have too many and you cant afford them and expect taxpayers to provide welfare.
I have nothing against helping working people who temporarily need assistance through no fault of their own-- unusually high utilities bought on by national issues, death of spouse, divorce or loss of job or illness. What is a problem is unmarried people who sleep around and get pregnant and know they cannot afford to have a child, usually teens. Now you are stuck with the decision of whether to kill the child before it is born or keep it and ask American taxpayers to support it. Better decision-- give it up for adoption to a well off family who can support it both financially and emotionally.
Meerkat - I think it is admirable that you want to help, especially with foster kids. But the reason for so many foster kids is parents who are making bad choices, mostly drug abuse. And we could do so much more in that arena.
As to the population question, I read something a long time ago about over-population being a myth.
"We're nowhere near the earth's capacity, which is yet another myth. Just to break it down with another classic example: the land area of Texas is 262,000 square miles, and the world's population is about 6 billion. By converting square miles to square feet and dividing by the world's population, one readily finds that there are more than 1,217 square feet per capita".
"The entire world's population could fit into Texas! "
Granted, there are areas in the world that are suffering but it is due to people not having freedom and there being no jobs available and also the ravages of civil war and diseases.
But as to the entire world being overpopulated, that just isn't true.
steph
There are HUGE chunks of TX that could not support human life. It's not just the space capacity to hold people we're talking about. There has to be arable land and potable water in order for those people to survive.
midwife2b
262 Posts
Too many is when your health suffers. When mama's health suffers, the entire family suffers; financially, emotionally, socially.
I have always admired women with large families. They are so organized!
Where I grew up it was mostly Catholic blue collar folks. Large families were considered the norm. I have 4 sibs and we were "small" in comparison to the families I grew up with!