Tangential to the content but not the title: could an acceptance of C-sections encourage women to have children in the first place? How much does the pain of natural childbirth affect willingness to have any children at all?
Depending on how much you value nativity this could significantly overshadow the first-order effects.
Great question, I really want to know the answer! This study says “13% of non-gravid [not pregnant] women report fear of childbirth sufficient to postpone or avoid pregnancy.” Separately, roughly 15% of women never have children, so that puts a ceiling on how big the effects could be on having any children. I suspect fear of childbirth is not a top reason for the 15%...but that’s not based on much data.
A woman with one kid might choose not to have a second kid because of the unpleasantness of childbirth, after directly experiencing it, which might be a bigger effect than just looking at women who chose to have no kids.
That said, C-sections aren’t pleasant, and I’d be surprised if this was a bigger factor than the rest of pregnancy and caring for a newborn.
Tangential to the content but not the title: could an acceptance of C-sections encourage women to have children in the first place? How much does the pain of natural childbirth affect willingness to have any children at all? Depending on how much you value nativity this could significantly overshadow the first-order effects.
Great question, I really want to know the answer! This study says “13% of non-gravid [not pregnant] women report fear of childbirth sufficient to postpone or avoid pregnancy.” Separately, roughly 15% of women never have children, so that puts a ceiling on how big the effects could be on having any children. I suspect fear of childbirth is not a top reason for the 15%...but that’s not based on much data.
A woman with one kid might choose not to have a second kid because of the unpleasantness of childbirth, after directly experiencing it, which might be a bigger effect than just looking at women who chose to have no kids.
That said, C-sections aren’t pleasant, and I’d be surprised if this was a bigger factor than the rest of pregnancy and caring for a newborn.