On Having Babies

MACLEANS--October 20, 2008 "At what age should I get pregnant?: A mathematical model helps women make a decision 'too important' to trust to feelings"

Researchers at Duke have come up with a two-hour personal questionnaire that is designed to help women figure out when they should have a child; questions include rating the impact to your social life, career, marriage, etc.

Two questions: does it work? And if it does, where can I sign up? This has been a big question for me over the past few years; when I was considering whether or not to do my PhD, I definitely took into consideration that if I decided not to have children until I got a tenure-track job, I'd be at least 35. About five minutes after our wedding ceremony was over, I was already getting the "so, when are you having babies?" question. It's something I'm thinking about.

There's a very interesting quote in the article, about a young female PhD student: "When you're a doctoral student, you can deal with a child pretty well...You almost never have anything due this week. It's due in two years. You can work tons, but if your child is sick in the morning, you don't have to work that day. This means the better time for her to have a baby is much earlier."

Really? Then my mom's schedule, which gets me pregant sometime next year, when I'm doing my comprehensive exam reading, is about right? Interesting. I'll have to think on that one...