Avoir des enfants en France

Abstract

Though humans have sought to control their fertility since ancient times, often using crude and largely ineffective techniques (iron filings, amulets, coitus interruptus, etc.), the arrival of the pill and the intra-uterine device in the 1970s brought a radical change in behaviour and in attitudes towards parenthood. Modern contraceptive techniques have enabled women to seek fulfilment through work or interpersonal relationships for example, without abandoning their desire for children.
Contraceptive coverage is now almost total in France. Contraception is used mainly by women and remains effective throughout the ovulatory cycle. Having a child thus involves a deliberate and measured decision to stop contracepting. Yet a certain ambivalence persists: contraception has become so routine and natural that the couples interviewed do not always feel that they are adopting a deliberate strategy. Moreover, the reality of planned and programmed births challenges their perception of reproduction as a spontaneous and disinterested act. Yet current contraceptive practice necessarily involves a rationalization of childbearing behaviour, affecting both the number and the timing of births.
The findings of INED and INSEE surveys and the accounts of 45 interviewed couples shed light on how personal experience, and the social, professional and family environments influence family formation, i.e. the desired number of children, the timing of births and the spacing of pregnancies. Couples generally wait for the right moment - a stable job and a certain level of material comfort - before starting a family. Some couples even try to plan the month of birth, either to fit in with their work schedule (teachers, for example, who aim for April or May so that maternity leave is followed by the summer holidays) or for financial reasons (a birth in December entitles the parents to tax reductions for the entire calendar year). Yet a proportion of couples are unable to have a child naturally and must resort to assisted reproductive technologies or adoption if they wish to found a family.