Fertility

Well there are bazillion things to talk about when it comes to natural pregnancy and birthing, not to mention parenting. Pregnancy is of course the key to birthing and parenting, so it only makes sense that society should focus on the importance of fertility and what it means to future generations. I think we under value and under estimate our control over our fertility, both womyn and men. Seems like its a given, it should always be there at least until the clock starts winding down right? The reality is fertility is something to be honored and protected, something we don't do.

I'm not going to quote statistics; anyone can look them up online. Fertility has always been something we considered under our control. Now that declining fertility rates are affecting the overall replacement rate, ratio of seniors to children is widening dramatically, we have to finally admit we may have gone too far in the wrong direction. Population growth estimates are estimates, they are not predictors of global crisis such as pandemics, wars, genocide and diseases such as HIV which can play a large role in global mortality rates especially in third world countries, the reality is this problem also lies in developing countries.

We don't seem to consider the after effects of events like war, the increased cancer rates among our children, the effects on fertility rates for both men and womyn, and the birth deformities that can be related back to the inevitable effects of such events. If the replacement birth rate was sitting at 2.1 children it makes sense that those two children born to a womyn would account for the eventual lose of parents due to aging and and/or diseease, a birth rate of 1.2 is not a replacement rate, especially when there is no guarantee of that child’s ability to produce its own off spring at a later time due to increased infertility. Emigration accounts for population decline within some countries, once again adding to the problem of an unstable youth to senior ratio. Some countries rely on emigration to prop up their declining population rates, once again throwing off the youth to senior ratio. An ageing population taxes the social welfare and pension systems that are supported heavily by our young who continue to invest and fund these systems that support our elderly. We can argue the system all we want but the reality is there always needs to be a younger, healthy population following behind an increasing ageing population in order for human kind to survive.

Overpopulation is not what I’m talkign about here, I agree it’s an issue, when it’s really an issue. My concern lies with the decline in fertility vs. the decline in births, or the ability to birth…. K, simply put the rise in infertility rates. Without fertility the argument of under-population or over-population is a moot point, because there is no choice.

So lets embrace our fertility and do what we can to protect and nurture it, in doing so we leave the possibility for continued debate over how to mange this gift.