Opinion:Infertility Leaves Little Time to Fill Generation Gap
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Summary
IF THERE is one thing smugger than a parent with a new baby it is a grandparent with a new grandchild. And quite right too. After all these years of hands-on parenting, what could be nicer than the vicarious pleasure of a new baby with none of the sleepless nights? Parents take their future status as grandparents for granted. It is, literally, their birthright.
But according to Professor Bill Ledger of Sheffield University, this complacency is misplaced. He told the European Infertility Alliance in Copenhagen this week that infertility in western Europe is set to double in a decade. Delays in starting a family, combined with rising levels of obesity and sexually transmitted disease, mean that one in three couples will have difficulty conceiving. The figure at present is one in seven. The current generation of parents may find that grandchildren are simply not on the agenda. Prof Ledger puts it bluntly: "The sustainability of the population of Europe is at risk because there are too few children being born. It is a threat to the future."See the full content of this document
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Opinion:Infertility Leaves Little Time to Fill Generation Gap
Nowhere is that threat more real than in Scotland. Ours is a dying nation. Up until the 1970s, Scotland's total fertility rate (TFR), the average number of babies born to women, exceeded that of England and Wales. In 1964 it peaked at 3.09, considerably higher than ...
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