Using a random sample of 580 Midwestern women, we test the hypothesis that women who have experienced infertility report higher psychological distress. Approximately one third of our sample reports having experienced infertility sometime in their lives, although the majority of the infertile now have biological children. Drawing hypotheses from identity and stress theories, we examine whether r...

The article deals with the problematics of childfree in sociological discourse. It is noted that concept "childfree" appears context rethinking prevailing public discourse about childlessness. If “childless” refers to people who are childless for reasons beyond their control, then “childfree” because they themselves made such a choice. Attention focused on insufficient development this issue mo...

To cite: Quilliam S. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2015;41:306–308. BACKGROUND 2015 has seen a 65-year-old German mother with 13 children expecting quadruplets, a media storm over the testing of new reproductive techniques on actual human pregnancies, and the autobiography of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown. In such a year, it seems pertinent for the Consumer Correspondent column to exp...

Individuals who choose not to be parents are viewed in terms of negative stereotypes and experience social pressures to alter or justify their status. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with twenty-four voluntarily childless women and men and a focus group that included seven of the interviewed individuals. Inductive analysis discovered the techniques that individuals used, in self-in...