But come stateside and pregnancy seems to be all the rage. From celebrities and US Weekly sightings of “baby bumps” to the alleged pact of pregnant teenage girls in Massachusetts – America is clearly in the throes of baby fever. Having a baby today is not only chic and fashionable, but women go into debt to do it. So what gives in Italy ? And why are Spanish women so reluctant to have babies? What’s going on with the Greeks? How has the culture of large, European families and “Big Fat Greek Weddings” given way to “lowest low fertility”? What’s happening with our sisters across the Atlantic ?
Interestingly, the Times found that fertility and the desire to have children today is linked to a combination of factors – from the culture of a society to the percentage of women in the workforce to the amount of involvement from the dad to the level of workplace flexibility.
Simply put, in Europe and America , working moms with flexibility, supportive spouses, and a government that helps them, are more likely to have kids. So our Scandinavian sisters who get oodles of government aid, paid maternity and paternity leave and subsidized, high quality childcare are much more likely to have children than women in more traditional countries like Italy .
Italian women may be as educated as women in Norway but because of
cultural differences, Italians still prefer women at home and men are
less inclined to split childcare duties, Italian women are much less
likely to have kids. But in Norway , where the government provides
generous paid leave to both parents, promoting family time and greater
gender equality, women have higher fertility rates. Interestingly, in
Europe working moms were more likely than stay-at-home moms to have more children. Read More.
Wendy Sachs is an award-winning television producer, former Capitol Hill press secretary and the author of the critically acclaimed book on balancing career and family, How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay-at-Work Moms. Currently, Wendy works as a vice president of a public relations agency in New York City where she represents high profile corporate clients and media personalities. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, Michael, and two children, Alexandra and Jonah. In her Mommy Track'd column How Does She Do It, Wendy gives a candid account of her management or mis-management of her daily tug of war between work and home.
