The anti-pregnancy pandemic
“My sperm has just landed!” a friend texts. This is followed by emojis: a champagne glass, a baby bottle, and a stunned ‘What am I doing?’ face. She’s one of my many girlfriends – late 30s, some with partners, some not – stuck in a very 2020 conundrum: “How do you make a baby during Covid?”
It’s a question I too have been grappling with over the past few months – aged 39, single and keen to start a family of my own. It wasn’t that I intentionally put my career first, but it took off in my 30s, presenting me with opportunities I couldn’t say no to. And for whatever reason, I’ve never met the right man to have children with.
Add Covid into the mix and there are even more barriers to motherhood: the financial implications of a collapsing jobs and housing market are terrifying; the closure of IVF clinics mean increased times on waiting lists when the one thing you don’t have is time; and then, of course, being stuck at home without the opportunity to socialise and potentially meet someone.
This month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the average age of first-time mothers in England and Wales has reached a high of 30.7 years. In fact, fertility rates fell in all groups, apart for in women aged over 40, for whom it’s rising. Last year there were 16.5 births per 1,000 women over 40, and more babies were born to women over 40 than under 20.
