The future of motherhood: conclusion and discussion

Abstract

We suppose that there are not many reasons to believe that the age at first birth will soon lower by itself. More likely, if nothing happens from the outside, the age at birth will continue to rise further up until a certain ceiling. A significant share of the future western first babies will be born to mothers in their 30s. From a health perspective that is beyond ideal but only if health costs will rise alarmingly the age at first birth may lower. More awareness of unhealthy fertility boundaries may have some toning down effect.But we believe that a coherent package of fundamental supportive arrangements, making society more child and gender friendly, would have much more impact, not only on the age at first birth but on the wellbeing in general.