Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 2007, 8 (2): 75-81

Life Courses of First Mothers after Thirty: Why to Have a Child Later?

Michaela Bartošová

The qualitative research is focused on the population of women who had their first child after thirty (in the case of no influence of medical problems that should lead to their prior childlessness) and observes, with the aid of grounded theory, if the women consider their motherhood delayed and how they define the reasons, which caused their having a child at that age. The following paper summarizes some substantial findings from an actual research. As the research has shown, motherhood after thirty is defined by women as both delayed (they became a mother later, than they had primarily intended) and non-delayed (they had a child when they wanted it). The essential criterion for planning and timing of having a child in both cases is the negotiating among partners and (dis)agreement over motivations and expectations of men and women. In general, there is an evident influence of cultural and value changes on timing of motherhood in the Czech Republic, which implicates the change in traditional life cycle and emergence of the new life stage (c. among 20-30 years of life) when young adults remain childless.

Keywords: Timing of motherhood, Mothers after Thirty, Qualitative research

Published: June 1, 2007  Show citation