One in five childbearing women childless

About 20 percent of child-bearing women choose to be childless today compared to 10 percent in the 1970s, according to a new study.

The trend was the same for all ethnic groups.  But among women with a Ph.D. or master degree, the rate of childless women has been on the decline from 31 percent in 1994 to 24 percent in 2008.

In the study, child-bearing women are those younger than 40 to 44 years.

The study was based on census data and released Friday by the Pew Researcher Center. The findings suggest some social and cultural shifts, Washington Post reports.

The shifts include better contraceptive measures and more career opportunities for women among other things.

Women today are much busier than their counterparts in the past. They are busy with their jobs, fun activities the new age can provide them like cell phone and internet etc. Many of them may not have time to raise a child.

One possible reason for some women to choose to be childless could be their fear of weight gain associated with having a baby.

Brown W.J and colleagues from the University of Queensland in Australia published a study in the Feb 2010 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine saying that partnered women with babies tend to gain more weight over a period of 10 years.

Brown and colleagues studied 6,458 Australian women aged 10 to 23 years in 1996 and found that women gained weight at the rate of 0.93 percent of their body weight per year or 605 grams per year.

They found that over a 10-year period, partnered women with one baby gained almost 4 kilograms. In comparison, those with one partner but no baby gained merely 1.8 kilograms over the same period.

Early studies have found more women have a child now at an older age than their counterparts in the past.

Childless women and those who give birth at an older age are at higher risk of breast cancer.

A recent study confirmed that late age at first birth was associated with increased risk of all subtypes of breast cancer - ductal, lobular, and mixed ductal-lobular breast cancers.

The study was conducted by Phipps A.I. and colleagues from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published in the June 2010 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

By Jimmy Downs