Joined on
07-19-2011
VIRGINIA 7708466733208019
Posts: 747
First: 10/5/2011
Last: 5/15/2012
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FI and I definitely want kids (although we want to wait until he's a bit closer to the end of his service, and also by that time I should be completely done with school). I don't worry so much about being infertile as I do about miscarriages and genetic problems. FI's mom had a lot of problems in her pregnancies, and my mom had 2 miscarriages, a stillbirth and then 4 living children (but all of us were thankfully healthy). FI's brother has mild Asperger's syndrome (considered a high-functioning autism) and the thought of having disabled kids scares me. Don't misinterpret this, please- I know it's not the child's fault, and I don't believe in elective abortion; I do believe that God will equip us with whatever we need to raise any children we have, but the selfish part of me would choose not to have biological children if I knew we had really high odds of having a child that would never age developmentally to the point where they were self-sufficient/independent. I think it's a difficult life for the child and the parents, and if I were faced with that choice, I would probably want to adopt a child that needed a loving home.
Back more to the topic, the article is very interesting. According to the Healthy People 2010 National Goals (it's a nursing thing), about 13 percent of married couples in the US have an impaired ability to conceive or maintain a pregnancy. They also say that somewhere between 10-15 percent of heterosexual couples in the US are infertile. It's always been interesting to me that they say about 40 percent of the time it's a female issue, 40 percent of the time it's a male issue, and 20 percent of the time it's a combination of male and female factors or "unattributable".
For anyone who is interested, Genetic defects/anomalies occur in 14 percent of newborns, and statistically, 90 percent of infants that have 3 or more minor anomalies will have one or more major anomaly. The thought of pregnancy complications really scares me, because infertility doesn't necessarily affect "my" health status as far as everyday living goes, where a pregnancy complication can jeopardize both the health of the mother and the unborn child.
I hate the thought of possibly becoming pregnant prior to actually TTC, because then you're not able to consciously create the best environment for a healthy pregnancy (something like greater than 80 percent of women regularly use at least 1 medication/vitamins/minerals/herbal supplements/whatever) and then factor in social drinking? and the advice that women should start taking prenatal vitamins when they start TTC because of the reduced incidences of neural tube defects?
but then, I watch "I didn't know I was pregnant" and wonder if it matters at all. lol
oh, and for anyone interested- 
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