Past studies have shown a correlation between the age of the parent and the health index of a child. The determinants of the health indexes include recovery time for the mother, child’s cognitive and mortal skills development, language development, and associated after-birth complications. Generally, these studies focused on identifying whether the genetic and biological changes that take place within a female body affects her ability to deliver health and genetically superior children. These line of questioning indicated that women are better positioned to give birth at a younger age. Whether there are associated findings that dispute these findings, the fact remains that theories about the beats age to become a mother focuses on biological advantages. However, as observed by Lancaster (2017), there is a major gap between when humans mature reproductively and when they become socially mature to handle society.
The difference between the biological and social maturity and its impacts on motherhood has been marginally ignored in this debate. The debate of whether a pregnancy, at a certain age, becomes an advantage or a disadvantage must consider other associated aspects. For instance, at twenty-one years, a woman is likely to be ready to give birth biologically. However, the social parameters see such a woman as a university student or an intern, where getting a job is more important than becoming a mother. The social mentality, together with the financial obligations might make pregnancy at twenty one become a challenge despite the biological superiority of women of that age. This means there is a correlation between social and biological aspects. This debate cuts across social, psychological, and physiological aspects.
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Determinants of the Ideal Age for Woman to Have Children
Social Normalcy
The privilege to belong to society is a basic need for every individual. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people constantly seek to belong to social groups sharing similar ideologies, religion, and even rules. In most cases, these groups are informal, following informal, but important social norms. Failure to follow these norms leads to marginalization, solitude, and gossip. The pregnancy age is a key determinant of how society views an individual and people who relate with her by proxy. For instance, society is likely to label a mother a failure if her daughter falls pregnant at the age of sixteen. Even though such occurrences are majorly tolerable, they are not without their challenges that would affect one’s quality of life.
The need for social interaction forces people to strive to live by the social norms. The norms dictate the expected conduct of the members of the society and the punishment for this who deviate. This makes the perfect age for a pregnancy a matter of social conditioning. For instance, the Middle East has the lowest legal marriage age and Nigeria has the lowest sex consent laws at eleven years. In these societies, marring a teenager is acceptable and seen as a rite of passage. The society itself has systems that support the trend. For instance, in the Middle East, women are often not likely to go to school or have a corporate career. The social lack of emphasis on education allows young girls to get married and have families at a younger age. The value consequences of having a child at a younger in such a society are different from having a child at the same age in western societies.
There is also a direct proportionality between social acceptance and mental stability. Borg, Hertel, and Hermann (2017) suggest that people who are socially conforming are better placed in society. This means that they receive social support whenever they need it. Human beings have the need for social and intimate interactions. These social interactions go beyond the biological families to social circles, religious factions, and political divides. It is in these groups that people feel that their opinions and ideologies are respected and appreciated by people of like-minded.
When a woman gets pregnant at an age that is socially unacceptable, she alienates herself from the favors reserved for conforming people in society. Her parents, friends, and schoolmates start to see her as a different person simply because of the new status. This isolation can lead to mental instabilities such as depression, anxiety, and even low self-esteem. This means that the right time to become pregnant is based on social expectations.
Finances and Stability
At the early twenties, most women are reproductively mature, but socially and financially unstable. Getting pregnant at this age puts these mothers into a huge disadvantage where they have to rely on their families or friends for survival. Unarguably true, their babies are likely to be healthier and interactive than a baby born of fifty years old. However, there is also proportionality between a mother’s ability to afford a good life and the overall health of a baby. In other words, a mother needs to be both biologically viable and financially stable to be able to provide for a child.
In most societies, one’s ability to provide for his or her family relies on status. For instance, in Asia, the divorce rates are low compared to western countries. A woman who gets a baby out of wedlock in Asia is thus likely to face more challenges and mental pressure than a woman in America. The rising cases of out of wedlock children in America have led to tolerance and collaboration between parents who never got married. In this scenario, a woman who gets pregnant in America gets enough social support, while the same society condemns a woman in Asia. The difference in social conditioning and the impacts of pregnancy to one’s personal friend’s circle is a key determinant of when a woman should have babies.
A report by Bengtson, Johnson, Johnson, and Walker (2016) showed that women mature reproductively from eleven years. By the age of sixteen years, 91% of women achieve full growth in terms of reproducing functions. However, in most societies, teenagers are still under the care of their parents and considered by the government, institutions, and societies as underage without the privileged of making reproductive decisions. The societies set the age bracket of when a woman should make reproductive decisions based on the social and cultural aspects that define responsibilities and expectations. Taking a case of the Middle East and most Islamic countries, women become helpers of their husbands by engaging in similar business or becoming housewives.
Culturally, the responsibility of taking care of the family falls on the man. This means that if a woman gets a man who is willing to marry her, she does not have to worry about providing for the family. In the event that the man fails to provide for the family, after marrying the woman in a socially acceptable manner, the blame falls on him allowing the woman to enjoy her social space without mental instabilities. Summarily, the financial obligations of having a baby and the outcome depend on the social expectations of a woman and her ability to position her alongside these expectations and attract favor from the society. The financial and responsibility expectations differ from one society to the other. In developed societies, a woman can defy these expectations and still afford a happy life if she has enough resources. Even without the expected social positional, her ability to bring up her baby according to the social matrix puts her at an advantage when compared to other women.
Child Birth and Cognitive Development
Studies predict a correlation between the age of the mother, and the mothers and children cognitive development. Falk (2016) observes that motherhood is a transition period that leads to increased brainpower among women. If the transition period takes place before the woman is socially, financially, and biologically ready, it fails to meet the intended objectives. This was proven by Rackin and Brasher (2016) in their study that included 800 women aged between 42 years and 92 years. The study proved that women got better brain power after menopause. The same study indicated that if a woman had her last baby after thirty-five years, there was prolonged longevity and high brain power when compared to mothers of the same age and cognitive abilities who had their last babies before the age of thirty-five. In a way, giving birth to a child at a later stage in life slows down the aging process at a cellular level.
To map out the true value of giving birth at a later date in life, it is better to understand the impacts of late births to the children. Although the type, size, and nature of the family play a major role in determining the quality of life enjoyed by a child, the age of the parent also plays a role. Older parents are likely to be more composed, experienced in social interactions, exposed to changes and social conventions. Therefore, the decisions made about bring up a baby would revolve into offering the best possible care and services. This is something a young teenager mother would not handle well. The social circles of an older mother mean she has reliable friends, willing to help and offer to confirm when challenges arise. A teenager mother is likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and frustration due to lack of support instead of social ridicule and marginalization.
Western societies consider women stable for marriage after university education and securing a good job. The ideal age for marriage and having children is again dictated on the dreams of the individual as well as the social conditioning.
The security builds up by the parents or parent at an older age in life makes sure that the children live without any complications eliminating the parents’ constant fear (Gaydosh, Belsky, Domingue, Boardman, & Harris, 2018). For instance, a mother without health covers is likely to be constantly worried about the health of the child. Failure to take care of the child is likely to bring about a sense of failure, lower self-esteem, remorse, and self-hatred. These instabilities, combined with the lack of social support for younger parents are likely to lead them to depression.
General View and Future Study
Generally, there is no ideal age of becoming a parent. However, figuratively, the right time for a woman to consider having a baby is a decade after her reproductive maturity. Courtin and Avendano (2016) identify human mature biologically ten years before Americans mature socially. Therefore, holding other factors constant, a woman is likely to be social mature ten years after she completely develops her reproductive organs. The main concept for the argument is the need for independence and the ability to work alone. The societies mostly determine the needed degree of indecency. As highlighted above, some societies expect a woman to submit to a man who would, in turn, feed her and take care of the family. In such a society, the age of getting a child is purely dictated by the patriarchal systems. In other progressive societies, the ideal age to get a child is based on a woman’s ability to find a responsible man, or reach a certain level of financial independence to take care of herself and the baby.
Conclusion and Proposed Study
Owing to the confounding factors that determine the ideal age of having a child among women, it is vital to conduct community-specific studies. Generally, the age of having a baby can be placed anywhere between seventeen and above years for culturally based societies and twenty-five and above for modern societies based on a combination of cultures. For instance, in the USA, the ideal age for having a child is much lower for Hispanic women than for white women due to the nature of their beliefs and social settings. To fully analyze the ideal age, it is better to examine these social, economic, and religious connotations based on a specific community.
References
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Falk, D. (2016). Evolution of Brain and Culture. Journal of Anthropological Sciences , 94 , 1-14.
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Lancaster, J. B. (2017). Human adolescence and reproduction: An evolutionary perspective.
In School-age pregnancy and parenthood (pp. 17-38). Routledge.
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