Lisbeth B. Knudsen (main responsible) and Lone Schmidt

 

The main part of the sub-project consists of analyses of the establishing of a daily life with or without children subsequent to fertility treatment, among couples who were childless both when initiating the treatment and when they deliberately ended any further treatment. This group has not previously been subject for analysis and are estimated to comprise approximately 350 couples.

 

Research questions

Studies on fertility in blended families and the impact of ‘yours, mine and our’ children on fertility in the new couple have focused on various hypotheses regarding the wish for and the meaning of having a joint child, e.g. commitment and documented, that the positive effect on fertility is strongest when the woman has no child of her own (Thomson 1997; Toulemon & Knudsen; in writing). Altogether this points at the complexity of the decision and that the expectations and roles of the man and the woman may differ.

     This sub-project will further elucidate the hypotheses regarding the meaning of having a joint child, as the couples who end treatment attempts have been through a process of both expressing the wish for a child and experiencing that they will not succeed. Further it will be studied whether and how the value of having a child differs amongst the male and the female partner and whether this changes during the treatment and influences the decision to end.

     In this aspect, whether the cause of childlessness, if defined, is linked to the man or the woman and the information on which of the two (if any) may have a child before, can be used to elucidate further the different impact of previous children from other partners, that has been shown in studies of stepfamilies.

     One of our research interests is whether the background of these couples differ from other couples in the COMPI-cohort, as regards socio-demographic characteristics, infertility related stress and previous family histories. Further, as these couples wish to have a child, it is of interest to elucidate, whether there is a medical or treatment-specific condition exercising a specific strong impact on the choice to end the treatment, and if so, if the couple subsequently turn to ‘low—technological’ treatment (insemination) instead and with what result.

     If treatment-specific conditions can not explain their choice of ending the treatment, the various data on their relation and experience of stress facilitate analyses of the relative weight of having a joint child compared to continuing as a couple without children or perhaps if they have a previous child from a previous relation and whether they are more opt to choose a life without children or to find solutions like adoption where the family life includes children who are not biological children of the couple.

     Thereby we can throw light on the gender-specific meaning ascribed to having a joint child, related to the meaning of establishing a daily life with child, irrespectively whether this is adopted or from a previous relation. Ongoing studies by members of the COMPI-group concentrate on these couples’ reasons for ending the treatment attempts, but none of these include any information on the kind of family, the couples establish subsequently and whether they include children (Schmidt 2009).

 

Data and methods  

Most analyses on fertility and fertility intensions have been focusing on information on and from women, partly because the actual routine registration on deliveries and births have been linked to information on the women, because of the general picture of children living with their mothers after a divorce and, finally, because the mother in many cases are considered to give more valid information about the children than the father (Knudsen 2003a).

     In this project we will use the data on both women and men (individuals and partners) in one and same couple, thereby overcoming the lack of knowledge about the males’ attitudes, wishes and solutions in relation to childlessness. The questionnaire data make it possible to conduct a thorough analysis of the couples’ decision-making process regarding to deliberately choose to stop the treatment, while by including data from the medical records specific medical conditions can be identified, e.g., infertility diagnosis, type of treatment and possible problematic health conditions related to the treatment. Lone Schmidt’s medical expertise is needed especially here.

 

Literature

Knudsen LB (2003a). El hombre invisible: una discussión sobre el sistema de información sobre embarazos en Dinamarca. In: Rodríguez EA et al. (eds) Género y Población. Una perspectiva internacional. Madrid: Ibersaf Editores: 115-136 [The invisible man: A discussion of the registration of births in Denmark]

Schmidt L (2009). Preliminary, not published analyses

Thomson E (1997). Her, His and Their Children: Influences on Couple Childbearing Decisions. National Survey of Families and Households Working Paper #76, Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 1997.

Toulemon L, Knudsen LB (in writing). Stepfamilies in Denmark and France. Does the number of previous children from both partners and whether the previous children reside with the couple influence fertility?