WEDNESDAY, May 27, 2009 (Health.com) — Diana Adam, 35, and her husband wanted to have a second child this year. The timing just seemed right. She had a job as a software engineer at a big market research company near San Francisco, and it had good benefits—including paid maternity leave. He was looking for a faculty position after finishing his PhD in sociology but had a steady job as a lecturer at a state university. Their first child, a boy, was 3.
But that was before the economic meltdown. Since then, her husband’s hours were cut at work and may dry up completely in the fall. At least half of the faculty positions he’s applied for were cut due to hiring freezes. Adam herself survived a round of layoffs at her job, but still doesn’t feel completely secure. “Right now we are postponing [a pregnancy] to definitely next year at the earliest,” Adam says.
Adam and her family are not alone. Nearly 1 in 5 married women ages 18 to 44 say the shaky economy has affected their plans to increase the size of their family, according to a survey released in May by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Nearly 1 in 10 say that they put off a planned pregnancy because of the bad economy.
Meanwhile, urologists have noticed a spike in men seeking vasectomies, and Planned Parenthood clinics report that more women are calling to ask for help paying for their birth control. Organizations that help low-income women pay for abortions say they’re getting more calls, too.
“There is no doubt that the economy is directly affecting the women in our community,” says Jenifer Vick, the director of development and communications at Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa in Cedar Rapids.
Next page: Women cutting back on routine health checks
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