I love reading about how other women and families make these huge decisions about their families. When to have a baby (if at all)? How many babies to have? How far apart to space them?
My two daughters are only 19 months apart. Being so close in age has meant that they often have similar needs, and they have become wonderful friends and playmates. It also meant that we had two babies for a while – getting up or down a flight of stairs remains imprinted in my memory as a primary challenge when they were both really little!
One of my favorite bloggers, Design Mom, posted about her own pregnancy spacing here, and a slew of interesting comments followed. Here are a few other pieces that I’ve recently come across on pregnancy spacing and decision making, including research on the effects of spacing pregnancies on maternal and infant health outcomes:
3 to 5 years is the optimal interval for maternal and child health.
How Many Kids Do You Hope to Have? Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo
Larger gap benefits older sibling later in life.
A WHO (World Health Organization) Report on birth spacing recommends at least a 2 to 3 year gap to minimize risks of adverse health outcomes for mothers and babies.
Of course, the decisions of whether to have children and when, how many, and how far apart, depend on countless factors, and are personal and unique for every woman. How did you decide?