The decision to have a baby has become
\nmore and more difficult to make. A growing number of families give up having
\nchildren altogether or decide to have them later on in their lives. According
\nto the latest data made public by the European Statistics Institute Eurostat,
\nin 2017 the average age at which women in the European Union have their first
\nchild was 29, with the youngest ages, 26.5 years, reported in Bulgaria and
\nRomania. Apparently Romanian women are following the lead of Western European
\nfamilies, and couples want fewer children and later in life. People are more
\nconcerned with personal happiness. In recent years, profession has started to
\nbecome increasingly important in women’s lives. They are more interested in
\nstudying, in moving up in their career, and this turns family life into a
\nsmaller priority. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the other hand, experts warn that
\nlater pregnancy entails a number of risks. Stefania Mircea, a project coordinator
\nwith Save the Children Organisation, explains:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It’s a recent trend, whereby having
\nthe first child is pushed until after the age of 30. Men and women become
\nparents a lot later than previous generations used to. The reasons for this are
\nnumerous, and they have to do primarily with the growing financial and
\nprofessional pressures. Sometimes, the consequences are not trivial, going as
\nfar as the impossibility of pregnancy. But there are many other risks as well:
\nmiscarriage, genetic anomalies of the foetus, gestational diabetes, premature
\nbirth, difficult childbirth or even death at childbirth. The general consensus
\nis that a woman reaches maximum fertility around the age of 25.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
But in spite of the increase in the
\naverage motherhood age, Romania still faces serious problems, particularly in
\nvulnerable communities. The European survey also reveals that the highest
\npercentage of teenage motherhood (mothers under the age of 20) was also
\nreported in Romania and Bulgaria in 2017, namely 13.9% of the total number of
\nfirst-time mothers. Romania is at the top of the list of EU countries by number
\nof underage mothers. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to the latest report by
\nthe Save the Children Organisation, 5 in 10 mothers under 18 have never been to
\na specialised check-up, which led to a 4-times higher rate of premature births.
\nStefania Mircea tells us more:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The issue of the teenage mothers still
\nis an alarming one in Romania, given that the infant mortality rate is almost
\nthree times higher than in the case of adult mothers with official access to
\nproper healthcare assistance. According to a survey published by the National
\nStatistics Institute earlier this year, the infant mortality rate in the case of
\nmothers under 15 was 17.3 per 1,000 live births in 2017, whereas the average
\nnationwide rate stood at 6.7 per 1,000 live births. For the 15-19 age bracket,
\nin 2017, the infant mortality rate saw a higher percentage compared with the
\naverage rate countrywide, namely 10.5 per 1,000 live births. According to the
\nmost recent statistics, 742 teenagers younger than 15 became mothers in 2017,
\nwhile 18,938 live births were reported for teenagers aged between 15 and 19.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
For quite a few years now, the Save
\nthe Children Organistion has been running programmes supporting Romania’s vulnerable
\ncommunities, Stefania Mircea has told us:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We have been supporting these
\nfamilies by providing the proper medical treatment and everything related to
\nthe educational component. We have created a network to support social
\ninclusion and combat poverty, providing integrated medical, social and educational
\nservices at local level. We work in 14 counties and we have noted an
\nimprovement. We have local teams offering assistance to around 7,500 people, including
\nchildren younger than 5 years of age, young mothers and pregnant teenagers. As a result of our intervention, more than 30
\n% of the pregnant women in these communities had gynaecological check-ups
\nduring pregnancy, the children and pregnant women we provide assistance to have
\nstarted to see their family physicians or some registered with a family
\nphysician, services they had not benefitted from before because they were
\neither not aware that such services were available or because it was difficult
\nfor them to reach the doctor’s surgery. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The emancipation of women, the
\nintensification of migration, the growing demands of raising and educating
\nchildren and the lack of family policies are some of the causes leading to lower
\nbirth rates in Romania. According to statistics, Romania’s population is
\ndecreasing at an alarmingly fast pace. 2018 saw the lowest number of live
\nbirths in the last fifty years, as only 173,900 children were born. Young
\nRomanians leave the country each year in search of better living conditions. In
\nten years, from 2007 to 2017, 3.4 million people left Romania, which accounts
\nto approximately 17% of the country’s population. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More and more people postpone having children until later in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43523],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-143107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-motherhood"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n