6 reasons why Jamaican women delay childbearing

ALICE is a 34-year-old vibrant and brilliant investment banker. She is well respected and has had an illustrious career thus far. She is flourishing financially and rising through the ranks of her institution rapidly. Though happily married for the past four years, the thought of a pregnancy is extremely far-fetched. She is currently more focused on the relationship with her husband and hopefully achieving CEO status of her financial institution in the near future.

Jamaica’s total fertility rate has fallen from 3.8 children per woman in 1980 to an estimated 1.6 today — well below the 2.1 replacement level needed to sustain a population. The Government has been educating the general public on the current fertility rate status, subtly encouraging the young to try and rectify the situation.

Being a health-care provider for females and interacting with numerous women monthly, both in the public and private sector, here are my personal six thought processes as to why the Jamaican woman is delaying childbearing or may not be currently interested in future conception.

1) Ascertaining career stability

Jamaican women are the most educated demographic on the island. They enrol in, and graduate from, tertiary institutions at higher rates than their male counterparts. They pursue postgraduate degrees. They climb corporate ladders and build businesses. Every year spent investing in that future is a year spent delaying childbearing.

A woman who enters motherhood with career security and a sense of her own identity is better positioned to be the mother she wants to be. The generation before hers often had children young and lacked an established career — modern Jamaican women want to change this trend.

The delay is not a rejection of motherhood, it is an insistence on being ready for it.

2) Inability to afford children

Jamaica is a very difficult country to survive in. Some women are just unable to afford children in Jamaica, based on the economy and their financial status.

School fees, uniforms, extra lessons, transportation, health care, clothing, childcare and food all run into hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars per year for a family.

Jamaican women are not frivolous with this calculation. They have watched families make numerous financial sacrifices to maintain the welfare of their children in the past, and do not want to replicate those scenarios. They are determined to do better — and doing better requires financial stability.

Jamaican women will continue to delay conception until they achieve the perfect financial situation.

3) Waiting for the right partner

Jamaica has a well-documented challenge with male commitment in romantic relationships. Our males are more interested in being the “top gyalis” vs “the committed partner”. The pattern of absent fathers, non-committal partners, and men who are emotionally or financially unavailable is not a stereotype — it is a lived reality for a significant number of Jamaican women. Many Jamaican women have made a firm and fair decision that they will not do this alone.

The unfortunate scenario in Jamaica is that of the single mother raising her children, with the absentee father abandoning his responsibilities.

Jamaican women no longer want to partake in this scenario.

4) Lack of her own home

Jamaica has historically, for decades, encouraged home and land ownership amongst her citizens. Historically, it represents stability and maturity. Most Jamaican women aspire to own their personal property/properties and see this as a necessity before commencing their family. But with property prices being almost unrealistically achievable, in some cases, within the Jamaican market, so does the prospect of achieving a pregnancy.

5) Migration

In recent times there has been a mass migration of Jamaican women to the US and Canada. With this migration they have “restarted the clock” with their lives. They now have to re-acclimatise to the new country, which entails getting used the to the way of living, people, job and culture. This process may be longer for some than others and, as a result, their childbearing is again delayed as they build their new life outside of Jamaica.

6) The Gen Z woman is simply done explaining herself

For the first time in Jamaica’s history, a generation of women is approaching motherhood as a choice rather than a given. Gen Z Jamaican women grew up online, with unfiltered access to honest conversations about postnatal depression, the invisible labour of motherhood, and the quiet sacrifices of women who gave everything to their families and kept little for themselves. Many looked at their own mothers as devoted, selfless, and quietly exhausted. They made a private decision to do things differently: “Me nah do this like Mummy, yu nuh!” For the Gen Z Jamaican woman, motherhood is no longer the automatic next chapter — it’s an option that most choose to not partake in.

Choosing to wait is valid. But every woman who is delaying childbearing deserves honest information about what time does to fertility. Your ovarian reserve declines with age — most noticeably after the age of 35. Gynaecological conditions such as fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, and endometriosis can additionally worsen with time. Combined with a natural decrease in fertility, pregnancy may be harder to achieve.

It’s important for us to remind the young of this, as the state of the population is in their hands.

Dr Daryl Daley is a cosmetic gynaecologist and obstetrician. He is located at 3D Gynaecology Limited, 23 Tangerine Place, Kingston 10. Feel
free to contact Dr Daley at ddaley@3dgynae.com.

Dr Daryl Daley.