US Women Are Now More Likely to Have Kids — and More of Them! — Later in Life

By the time my grandmother was my age (27), she'd already had her three kids (including my dad, who was a total accident a few years after his brother and sister were born). But that was back in the '50s, when the norm was very much so getting married young and popping out a few babies shortly after. Over the years, motherhood has changed and adapted to the times, especially due to more women in the workforce, kicking ass and taking names in whichever career they've chosen — but the number of women becoming mothers hasn't gone down as a result; it's actually risen over the last 10 years. The fact of the matter is, these women are just waiting until later in life, some even until their early 40s, to have their kids.

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of US Census Bureau data, "After decades of decline, motherhood and family size are ticking up." And what's more, the number of women ages 40 to 44 who are mothers has gone up from 80 to 86 percent over the last decade or so.

Not only that, but in 2006, the average number of children women were having, 1.86, was the lowest it had been on record. Ten years later, that number was up to 2.07 children. However, among those women who were mothers — defined for the sake of this study as women who birthed children themselves — data shows that in 2016, "Mothers at the end of their childbearing years had had about 2.42 children, compared with a low of 2.31 in 2008."

This means that women are choosing to delay starting their families until they're ready, taking time to establish their careers, achieve personal goals, save money and pay off debts, and gain tons of life experience; but once they're ready, they're not having just one child; they're having two or three. This is true across all racial groups, according to the study.

Another interesting piece of data reported in the study shows that "there has been a substantial increase in motherhood over the past two decades among women who have never married." In fact, of the women ages 40 to 44 in 2014 who had never been married, more than half (55 percent) were mothers, which was up from 31 percent in 1994.

These trend-based findings should definitely put career-minded women like myself at ease. We can keep kicking ass and taking names, then likely have kids over the course of the next decade or so. If we wait until our mid-30s, we can also reap some of the hidden benefits to the trend, as research shows that the baby will be more intelligent, and that I'll live longer to enjoy my smart baby (with boosted brain power myself) to boot.