ABSTRACT
For several decades, a striking worldwide demographic shift has occurred in the United States and all developed countries. Women are waiting longer to have children. The average maternal age of one-third of women giving birth to a first child in the United States is thirty. When the decision to be a mother is conflicted, there are innumerable ways to avoid conscious knowledge about the anxiety that surrounds the decision. Some of the women who delay speak about their wish for a child in the future, while imagining that a few more years of work to secure the down-payment on a house will be all they need before trying to become pregnant. Developmentally, the experience of pregnancy and childbirth is a continuation of the ongoing psychological task of separating from one’s mother. The goal is to become an adult, able to conduct and responsible for her own life.
