Have them young
From Lisa Arai Sir: I endorse Michael Hanlon's sentiments (`Baby gloom', 19 October). Teenage fertility is not necessarily a bad thing; an 18or 19-year-old is well suited to give birth, has lots of energy, and can re-enter education or the workplace at a later age. My sister was a teenage mum (she is now a happily married, home-owning midwife), and I had my daughter in my early twenties; I look positively youthful besides most of my daughter's friends' mothers.
However, Mr Hanlon is mistaken on two counts. Male fertility lasts longer than women's, but sperm becomes decrepit, and old sperm has been implicated in illnesses (such as schizophrenia) in offspring. Also, Scandinavians are adamantly against teenage motherhood. Iceland is unique in this respect, and its high teenage fertility rate is probably related to other aspects of that country's demography, such as a traditional betrothal system that encourages pre marital conception. In Sweden and Denmark, the teenage pregnancy rate is quite high, but about 70 per cent of these conceptions are terminated, so pervasive is the stigma against early motherhood. Incidentally, in the Netherlands (a country much lauded for its absence of teenage motherhood) the government has been warning women not to leave childbearing too late.
Lisa Arai
University of London, London WCI
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