The Economy, Family Building, and Unexpected Gifts of Infertility

Many people are thinking, and often worrying, about money these days. The news is full of doom-and-gloom reports, and even those who have not been directly affected by the economic downturn are making different financial choices. One of those choices is deciding to have a baby or not.

There is an interesting article at MSNBC.com on the economy’s effect on baby-making rates. They reported that doctors are seeing more and more women looking to start on birth control and deciding to put off having a kid.

What I found really interesting, though, was that fertility clinics are not suffering for business. In fact, according to this article, many clinics are doing as well or better than a year ago. It seems that couples with infertility have not stopped trying to have a baby because of money concerns.

This might be surprising to some – especially when you consider how expensive having a baby is through fertility treatment, compared to those fertile, worrying couples who can practically have a child for free! (Relatively speaking.) But I wasn’t surprise at all.

I think couples with infertility have a completely different outlook on the cost of having a baby, and the planning behind a baby. I think that couples with infertility are much more aware of the passage of time – and that if they decided to wait a year, their chances of ever having a child may go down. (Read about infertility and age here.)

I also think that couples dealing with infertility put having a baby as number one on their list, after things like vacations or even buying a house. Their desire to build a family is much stronger, I suspect, than those who get pregnant easily.

I’m not saying that those who get pregnant easily don’t appreciate family, but I am saying that infertility gives you an entirely different outlook on what’s important in life. I can say that after almost six years of trying to have a third child, I love my two boys more deeply than I ever could have loved them before infertility. I see them as true miracles. I still ache at not having the third baby. But my appreciation of what I do have – and the miracle of life – is so much greater.

What are your thoughts? Has the economy affected your desire to have a child? Why do you think couples with infertility have not stopped trying, despite the costs and the unstable economic situation right now? Have you gotten something unexpected out of your experience with infertility, like a renewed way of looking at what you do have?

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