What are your reasons for wanting or not wanting children? Has your thinking changed?

Join National Women's Liberation in doing consciousness raising!  
Women tell it like it is about motherhood, childcare, birth control, abortion, partners, health care and emotional labor.  

“I thought I wanted to have two kids in the abstract, but… it’s like the water is up to your neck. The thought of another kid is just being swallowed up and going under… If there were no abortion available I can imagine myself looking into getting a back alley abortion if I got pregnant right now.”
—Bettina, New York

“Understanding that there is no support in place for women who have children… seeing my friends who are in their early to mid-thirties now go through being pregnant, childbirth, how that's affected their careers and their relationships with their partners and their friends. I see them getting joy out of having children, but I see so many other parts of their lives crumbling… and that compromise doesn't seem appealing to me whatsoever.”
—Beatriz, New York

“I need to work fewer hours; I would like to have health benefits whether I work or not; I wish I’d had more maternity leave, at least a year, then I wanted to go back half time. I want there to be places where you can go where people bring their children and their families and there’s food—healthy free food—and the kids can play together and you can eat supper. I want that much societal help.”
—Rana, Washington