February 28, 2009

Pregnancy — 50% planned; 50% unplanned

dancingthrupregnancy 1 baby, conception, depression, pregnancy, recession, survival

So…are you plan­ning to become preg­nant? For the last decade, preg­nan­cy has been in a 50/50 sit­u­a­tion. That is, about half the preg­nan­cies occur­ring in the U.S. are planned. The rest? Well, not nec­es­sar­i­ly unwel­come, but def­i­nite­ly unplanned.

Will this change in the cur­rent reces­sion (or as a friend said today, Let us just call it a depres­sion and move on)? So far, it is clear that preg­nan­cy rates are not drop­ping, despite an unwill­ing­ness to spend mon­ey on many oth­er things. What does this say?

Once again, despite liv­ing in a high tech world, hav­ing babies is a pri­mal expe­ri­ence. It does not dimin­ish when resources are scarce.

So, plan to or not, if you have a baby dur­ing this depres­sion, do not waste your mon­ey. Fig­ure out how to have a healthy preg­nan­cy.

Next on the Preg­nan­cy Path­way: the act of con­cep­tion.