What are THE REASONS such a trend?
Having studied information on the Internet, I have the impression that people who flatly refuse to become parents are often selfish, and / or their own childhood was not the most rosy. A person simply does not want to relive childhood years / having not received maternal love, does not find in himself the desire to bestow it.
Other reasons are unwillingness to part with their freedom and a life full of entertainment, fear of responsibility, careerism, lack of a life partner, overpopulation of the planet and, of course, financial insolvency, although the last factor is not from the first row.
On the contrary, sociologists argue that this type of people are often highly educated and have a prestigious job, therefore it is the desire to realize themselves professionally for them that is the main thing in life, and children will only interfere with such an aspiration.
However, my opinion is this: it is better to consciously refuse motherhood than to give birth, because "it is customary" or even worse "to save the marriage."

Let's move on to astrology. As in a horoscope, you can see how much a woman subconsciously strives to become a mother. To do this, analyze the indicators of the "home" of children and the position of the moon.
- The sign of Taurus on the 5th cusp / ex 5th in Taurus / Venus at 5m / the Moon in Taurus or the sign of Cancer on the cusp of the 5th / ex 5th in Cancer / the Moon in Cancer in the horoscope of a woman cause a desire to become a mother in the absence of serious lesions of these elements.
It is worth paying attention to the Moon, which is discussed in more detail below using examples of celebrities.

The most difficult signs, coldly related to motherhood in my opinion, are Capricorn, Virgo and Aquarius. If they are associated with the house of children in the natal chart, it is very unlikely that a person will become a parent with many children.
For example, Capricorn in this position is not only a late child, but also "children are too responsible a step." If at the same time the ruler of Capricorn - Saturn is damaged, this is already a serious unwillingness to have children.

Let's look at a few examples.
Kim Cattrall- an actress best known for her role as Samantha Jones in the television series "Sex and the City", despite the fact that she was married three times, she never wanted children. Kim admits that when she comes home after a hard day, she wants to get enough sleep, and not sing a lullaby.
It would seem that the cusp of the 5th house is in the home sign of Cancer, but the Moon is in the 12th region of the horoscope squared to Saturn (at least a cool relationship with the mother, a feeling of dislike, dissatisfaction with children's needs) and in opposition to Pluto (a feeling of threat from the mother - a subconscious fear of destroying that , what do you like).
Plus, the Moon in opposition to the Sun is a symbol of the father - often a problematic relationship between parents. Regarding the childhood of the actress, I could not find information, but with such a Moon there is no doubt, everything was not easy.

The next actress who does not regret not becoming a mother is Rene Zellweger. “Children are voluntary slavery,” Rene is sure. No wonder the 5th house in Capricorn, children are perceived as a limitation. The moon is also in the 12th house, although it is quite harmonious.

Patricia Cus has a conjunction of the Moon and Pluto at 8m, the Moon square to Venus, which often gives an internal conflict of two female images - maternal and sexual, for the owners of this aspect it is difficult to realize how it is possible to be a mother and a sexual-flowering woman at the same time.

And finally, the horoscope of a man - George Clooney who claimed to be more fond of animals. No wonder he only became a father this year at the age of 56.
The Moon is also the ruler of the house of children, but in exile in conjunction with Saturn and in opposition to Mars.

MOSCOW, August 2 - RIA Novosti. Conscious refusal to have children, called "childfree", causes healthy irritation and rejection in society. Psychologists told RIA Novosti about why this phenomenon is still not so scary and how close people can influence the decision not to have a child.

Old problem with a new name

"The danger of the childfree phenomenon for society is too exaggerated. It has always existed, it just got that name now. By the way, it's good when something is named, because it makes you see the problem more clearly," said the consultant of the Center for Social Assistance to the Family and children "Khamovniki" Olga Danilenko.

In her opinion, the commitment to "childfree" can be considered as a passing phenomenon, since many people who preferred to be childless at a certain stage of life due to their profession or beliefs, in the end still acquire offspring.

“It’s not for nothing that many doctors, when it comes to sterilization, refuse to do it, because they are afraid of lawsuits. A person’s position may simply change over time, and he will go to court. After all, everyone speaks out only because of their current situation,” added she is.

The cult of children

“The trouble of modern society is a huge number of children who have not grown up. This is a property of the present time, a feature of our era,” says family psychologist Anna Khnykina, naming the reason why people can refuse to have a child.

"Big kids" do not want to let other children into their lives who will take time, destroy comfort, bring chaos and demand decisions. There are many reasons for the infantilization of society, but, according to Danilenko, it is partly justified by the existing cult of the child: increased, paramount attention is paid to childhood and youth, while maturity fades into the background.

“It seems that it is much better to be a child, but this is not so, because a child cannot be completely free. He does not take responsibility and at the same time cannot influence events,” she explained.

The cult of the child appeared as a result of the fact that medicine began to improve in the world, and in particular in Russia, the mortality rate of newborns decreased, and the social upheavals of the 20th century led to a reduction in the number of children in one family. A series of studies on the role of childhood trauma in the formation of personality, begun by Sigmund Freud, led to the fact that adults felt super-responsible for their attitude towards children.

“This has given rise to a very special behavior when parents give all their best that they burn out. They give all their strength to the child, push their needs to the background and eventually fall into emotional dependence on him, and he begins to take responsibility for their emotional state. This close connection can be so difficult that in adulthood, close relationships can simply scare a person, ”Danilenko explained.

Children are not the only meaning of life

"There can be many sources of meaning in life. Relationships are a very important source, but these are not always relationships with children, it can also be relationships with a partner, with friends, with some close people. In this sense, a person can live a meaningful life without children. But another thing is that some people feel that children are what they lack for meaning, "says psychologist Yevgeny Osin.

In his opinion, if a person decides to have a child, he will need an equal share of selfishness and altruism. "On the one hand, a parent must understand that he will spend a lot of effort and years on raising a child, and this may not pay off in any way. On the other hand, if he completely renounces selfishness, then this will then lead to all sorts of conflicts," he explained.

Experts agree that children are happy only when their parents are happy, and for this they need to learn how to combine raising a child and fulfilling their own desires.

“If we consider children as a way of self-realization, then in this case, it is probably better not to have them. When parents begin to embody their own goals and plans through the child, he no longer feels truly desired and necessary, and this leads to neurosis ", Osin added.

Tactics for relatives

Psychologists note that often the greatest pressure on people who for some reason do not want to have children is exerted by relatives. They should remember that the decision to remain childless can be caused immediately by a complex of problems: internal conflicts, uncertainty about the future, distrust of a partner, inability to cooperate with him, and many others.

In the end, a person can simply see his destiny in passing on to the next generation his own ideas, and not the gene pool. But it may well be that he just needs time, experts say.

In the event that relatives want to wait for grandchildren, the most losing option is to appeal to a sense of duty or remind them of the biological clock. According to Anna Khnykina, close people, especially parents, should realize that edification in this case is useless.

“When a person is ready to consciously put an end to his family, this can partly be called suicidal behavior. Relatives need to understand that it’s time to give up advice and to a person who does not want to continue his family, you need to show such an amount of love that was not previously shown in throughout his life. This is the only way to influence, "the psychologist is convinced.

They are sure that in old age they can easily do without a glass of water, which there will be no one to serve. And they know that humanity will not die out, because not everyone will follow their example and stop giving birth. From their point of view, life without children is a joy. Let's try to figure out who these people are and why they think so?
Childfree are men and women (and not just women) who deliberately refuse to have children. Contrary to idle speculation, for the most part they are adequate and do not have mental abnormalities. If you ask the most ideological supporters of the current - very intelligent, successful and educated - why they made such a choice, in response you can probably hear lengthy arguments about the unwillingness to aggravate the demographic situation on the planet and their personal contribution to the fight for the environment. But one should not think that there are no more real (and not far-fetched) reasons. There are at least six more good reasons not to give birth.

1. Thank you parents

Behind the reluctance to have children are always family stories - very different, but at the same time similar to each other. These are stories in which there were problems with parental love - it either did not exist at all, or vice versa - there was too much. It’s a paradox, but ignoring by mom and dad children who grow on their own like grass, and overprotection, when parents literally suffocate the child with their love, can give the same result. Grown up children do not want to give birth to their grandchildren. Some are afraid that the childhood of their children will also be unsweetened, others are not ready to turn their whole life into an endless feat of self-denial for the sake of the next generation. In addition, thanks to the "hothouse" education, reason number 2 can easily arise.

2. Infantilism

Many childfrees are residents of the same country as Peter Pan and the Tinker Bell Fairy, even if at first glance they seem quite mature and independent. Their psychological age does not coincide with the biological. It is clear that the desire to acquire offspring and take responsibility for the child. absent in such immature adults. What for? After all, they already have the most beloved, beloved and dear child, who needs to be pampered, groomed and cherished - it is themselves.

3. Fears

The figure deteriorates from pregnancy: the chest sags to the knees, stretch marks make the stomach ugly; giving birth is painful and scary, you can remain a cripple. Children are sleepless nights, unkempt hair, circles under the eyes, screaming, screaming and endless problems, a sure way to say goodbye to inner freedom, an end to professional growth ... The list of such arguments - both truthful and frankly ridiculous, can be endless . And any of them can become one of the reasons for refusing to procreate. To find out why this or that argument became the basis of a child-free worldview is really only at an individual consultation with a psychologist. But, as you understand, they are in no hurry to this meeting.

4. Selfishness

Many childfree people are afraid that the appearance of children will no longer allow them to fully enjoy life, as they do now, confuse all plans, make it difficult to climb the career ladder, force them to change priorities, etc. Therefore, they prefer to live "for themselves", without denying themselves anything.

5. Desire to be in trend

Where is the fiery revolutionary Clara Zetkin, who dared to say that a child is a man's leash, to the current stars who openly and boldly promote life without children. Celebrities, who are often role models (note that there are no frankly ugly losers among them and cannot be by default), are not shy in their statements. So it turns out that some are delighted with Renee Zellweger, who is sure that children are voluntary slavery, others are from Kim Cattrall, who is the most capable of “being a good aunt”, and still others are inspired by the example of Eva Mendes, who prefers healthy sleep and a quiet life of communication with "cute assholes."

6. Masking infertility

Among non-breeders on a “voluntary” basis, there are also those whose statements about their unwillingness to have children are a kind of psychological defense mechanism that makes it easier to cope with the presence of problems in the reproductive sphere. The principle “I didn’t really want to” in this case sounds about the same as “Green grapes”, but it relieves the feeling of shame, awkwardness that arises when it is necessary to admit to others in one’s own sterility.
Despite the fact that the childfree movement is gaining momentum year by year, many people are in no hurry to talk about the fact that they share this ideology. They do not seem to be against procreation, they simply “postpone” the birth of children “for later”. At some point, they understand that they need to choose between “now or never” and choose “never”, without entering into a confrontation with society.

According to statistics, about 5% of couples who want to have children suffer from infertility. Of these, about half of the cases are due to some kind of deviation in physiology. The reasons for the rest lie in psychosomatics, or, to put it more simply, in the psychological mood. This applies to both partners - both women and men.

“Psychological infertility is seen as the result of a woman's conscious or unconscious reluctance to have a child. Sometimes it is a fear of pregnancy and childbirth, sometimes it is an unwillingness to have a child from this man, sometimes it is resistance to changes in appearance that pregnancy can lead to, etc.

How does this happen

The human brain is an amazing thing. If for some reason he considers something wrong, he can “prohibit” other bodies from performing certain operations. For example, if in your soul you have a lot of doubts about the upcoming pregnancy, then the brain is able to take advantage of this and give a signal to the organs to prevent conception or even get rid of the unwanted fetus.

Psychological problems, stress, hushed up doubts of even one of the spouses can lead to the fact that a healthy couple does not have children. That is why in modern reproductive medicine, psychological counseling plays a very important role.

The reasons

What causes psychological infertility? There are many reasons: a side effect of taking medication, worries about money, an unresolved dilemma between family and career, a phobia that a child will be born sick or that a spouse may leave the family. In the end, even the shameless psychological pressure already established in our society “Well, when are you planning a baby?” from close and even unfamiliar people can do its job.

In the zone of special risk are too impressionable natures and people who, on the contrary, keep everything to themselves. The former suffer from the fact that they exaggerate their difficulties, while the latter simply do not give vent to their own emotions.

One of the most common causes of psychological infertility is that a couple begins to worry about problems conceiving, when in fact there are no problems. Statistics show that with an active sexual life, 85% of women become pregnant within a year, and 95% within two years. So don't label yourself as "infertile" if you and your partner have only been trying to conceive for the past few months. Such experiences cause unnecessary stress, and where stress is, there is a risk of psychosomatic diseases. In my practice, there were cases when, due to unnecessary emotional experiences, the patient had unpleasant changes in the body. Therefore, when they say that many diseases are caused by nerves, these are not empty words.

According to a survey of 200 couples seen in reproductive clinics, 50% of women and 15% of men remember waiting for pregnancy as the most depressing of their lives. Another study found that women suffering from infertility are at about the same level of depression as those suffering from cancer or suffering from the consequences of a heart attack.

The reproductive and endocrine systems under such serious pressure of psychological factors may not restore their functions at all without special help.

How to understand that you have psychological infertility

Here are the main reasons that can provoke psychological infertility:

• Do you regularly experience severe stress at work?
• you blame yourself for infertility or perceive the absence of children as a punishment for your previous lifestyle (a large number of sexual partners or the termination of a previous pregnancy);
• you do not trust your partner or think that he is not quite ready for the birth of a child;
• You have not fully answered the question of whether children are needed right now. Or, for example, you were recently promised a promotion and you do not want to refuse it because of the decree;
• you have at least some signs of depression;
• you have not fully resolved financial and other domestic issues related to the birth of a child;
• recently you have experienced a serious psychological shock (loss of a loved one, accident, flood or fire, major financial setbacks);
• you are subjected to serious psychological pressure from others due to the lack of pregnancy and children.

Analyzing your life for the presence of unspoken problems and thoughts is only the first step. The second is to ask about the possible anxieties of your partner. Men are usually less inclined to heart-to-heart talks, but it may well turn out that the reason is not so much in you as in the partner's secret anxieties. If there is at least a suspicion of depression, you should definitely consult a specialist - not only for the sake of the unborn child, but also for your own well-being.

How to treat

The best way to protect yourself from worries about conception is to make sure that everything is in order with the health of your couple, and ... relax. The less you think about the fact that the child is your goal, the faster you will be able to conceive. If you have been suffering from a lot of stress at work lately, then the ideal option is to take an extended vacation and move away from worries with your spouse. Engage yourself in a new project - for example, start learning foreign languages ​​or sign up for some club of interest. The main thing is not to let thoughts of a possible pregnancy take all your attention.

Diagnosing the real cause of psychological infertility without the help of specialists can be quite difficult. Sometimes it's enough just to relax, and sometimes you need to connect the "heavy artillery" - psychotherapy, relaxation techniques (yoga, meditation, acupuncture, massage) and even medicines.

I can give two illustrative examples from practice when the problem of patients was in my head.

In the first case, the couple tried to get pregnant for three years, despite the fact that we did not find physiological reasons for infertility in partners. It turned out that during this time they experienced a serious illness of a loved one, took out a large loan and experienced severe stress at work. We advised the couple to take a long vacation and generally not contact the outside world for some time - without the Internet, calls from work and communication on social networks. Helped! Literally immediately after returning from vacation, the patient found out about the pregnancy and subsequently gave birth to a healthy baby.

In the second case, a lot of work had to be done. At a psychotherapy session, it turned out that the wife suffered a severe psycho-emotional trauma at a young age, which none of her relatives even knew about. The woman herself, after this psychological trauma, began to consider herself unworthy of having children. After a long personal and family psychotherapy, the long-awaited pregnancy came.

Therefore, in each case, the decision will be individual, but it is better to start with a consultation with your reproductologist. If he understands that the reason lies in the head, then he will appoint an appointment with a psychotherapist.

Eleonora Kozlova, psychotherapist at the Center for Reproductive Health "SM-Clinic".

Boys play with cars, girls play as daughters-mothers, and when they grow up, they acquire what they dreamed about in childhood. The French say that the first child is the last doll. But what if you've never been interested in dolls?

You, like boys, played with cars. Or instead of baby dolls, you had Barbie beauties who clean feathers in deck chairs and have fun at parties, but do not feed a screaming child at all and do not change his diapers. The value of role-playing games cannot be underestimated. With their help, we master the world, fitting ourselves into it. If the desire to try on the role of a mother did not arise at the age of five, is it any wonder that it does not come even at thirty?

Wanting a child is natural. This is how nature intended. But it's okay not to want a baby. After all, we are not only natural beings, but also social ones. Above the basic instincts - self-preservation or procreation - we have so much stuff on top that sometimes they are unable to reach out to consciousness. You build a life, and the result completely satisfies you. There is no feeling that someone or something is missing in it. And since everything is there, why change something? You never know where these changes will lead you. Will it suddenly get worse? And is it possible to want something that you have never tried? Sea urchin caviar, for example. You haven’t eaten it before, so you don’t feel longing for it. You didn’t try on the role of mother either - you didn’t play with dolls, didn’t sit with your younger brothers and sisters, didn’t babysit your nephews, so you can’t know for sure whether it’s yours or not. By the way, the Chinese, in order to reduce the birth rate, obliged their citizens to have only one child, after 20-30 years they were faced with the fact that these only children who grew up without brothers and sisters do not want their own babies at all. Because they had no experience of caring for a baby in the parental family.

Popular

contraceptive setting

Appetite, as you know, comes with eating. And the need for motherhood too. Previously, nature did not need to enlist our desire to have a child. Because if we choose the right moment, we can last up to a hundred years. And it doesn't work for her! That's why instincts make us want not so much children as sex. After all, before, if there was a pregnancy, there was no longer much choice - to give birth or not to give birth.

With the advent of contraceptives, systemic failures occurred in this scheme. The initiative has passed to us. We are free to choose the perfect time, to wait for the desire to have a child to come. But the trouble is that desire does not come to everyone and the moment is not always right. In addition, if you protect yourself from pregnancy all your conscious life, its denial takes root in the subconscious deeper than you can imagine. There is a persistent contraceptive attitude, erasing the desire to become a mother. You listen to yourself, but you don’t feel any need for a child and decide that you are not yet ripe for this. And time is running out.

“I think that if a woman doesn’t want a child by 30, then most likely she won’t want one,” Anyuta says. - The farther, the less you want, because with age the character loses its elasticity. You become less patient, you get used to freedom. If you don't want to, maybe you don't have to. Not everyone can be moms! But if the question of why there is no such desire does not give rest, then there is still a need for a baby. Even if at the level of feeling that without children, it may be easier, but not quite right. It's good that it came to me in time. I gave birth to a child without the call of instinct, at my own peril and risk. Partly for show, to “shoot back”, and partly out of curiosity, to see what happens from my husband and I genetic mixture. I was not torn apart by maternal hunger, but I do not regret at all that I did not wait until I want to become a mother. The instinct never awakened. A sense of duty and conscious love has awakened, which arises after you recognize a person and put strength into him. You can madly want children, but be a bad mother. Or vice versa."

MEMORY GIRL
The desire to have children visits any of us at the end of puberty. But it is so instinctive that it is quickly forgotten if it is not realized. And by 25, you already believe that you “never wanted a child.”

nature trap

One of my acquaintances unexpectedly experienced an acute need to become a mother after practice in the orphanage. I fell, as psychologists say, into the prolactin trap. Prolactin is a pituitary hormone that awakens the parental instinct. This is a time bomb laid by nature under the foundation of indifference to the children's theme. As long as you keep a safe distance from shopping for new mothers, parks where they walk with strollers, sandboxes and playgrounds, prolactin does not remind you of anything. Because there is no reason! But one has only to press a warm, sleepy, pink, smelling of milk and baby powder baby (one's own or someone else's) to the chest, as the mother's hormone begins to be intensively produced in the body, stunned by surprise. Sometimes in such quantity that nulliparous girls even have milk! For some, it’s enough just to wander into the department where they sell rompers and undershirts for this biological timer to work.

But the most powerful release of prolactin occurs during pregnancy and especially during childbirth. That is why surrogate mothers, who have agreed to be incubators for someone else's baby, suddenly become imbued with irrational love for him. And for no amount of millions do they agree to give the child they initially did not want to biological parents. And for those, too, the parental hormone is raging with might and main, while they watch the surrogate mother and inflame themselves with preparations for the birth of the crumbs. Do you want to want a baby? Get close to the pregnant woman!

“Girlfriends, as if by agreement, go pregnant,” says 27-year-old Albina. - There are five of them! Maybe this is a herd feeling, but even I, who did not plan anything like this, suddenly wanted to join their company. I looked at the rounded tummies, walked with each of them around the Children's World and realized that I wanted the same thing. And before there was no such desire. Honestly!"

Coincidence

People sometimes don't want to have children because for some reason they can't. They inspire themselves with this reluctance, because not wanting is still better than not being able. The most obvious is physical incapacity. A friend tells everyone that she doesn’t want to “get involved with this.” And then it suddenly turns out that she, it turns out, has been treated for infertility for more than a year. There is no result, so she convinces herself and others that it didn’t hurt, and it was necessary. It’s easier without a child: you don’t have to go on maternity leave, drop out of life, the figure will not float. So that's great!

Someone understands that they will not pull the child financially. They just want children ... But they consider themselves unworthy ("with such and such a salary!") To become parents. And postpone the birth of a child until later. And when they achieve career success and financial well-being, they simply burn out, losing their craving for motherhood. Thirty-year-old anhedonia — a loss of interest in everything that is really worth living for — is a common phenomenon, especially in big cities. You just need to shake it up. To have a break. Remember why all these races with obstacles up the career ladder were started. Consider the design of the nursery, choose wallpaper for it, look after the crib. Any step in this direction is a way to awaken the instincts you have suppressed.

Some anxious and suspicious persons start to panic at the mere thought of children. The child will be completely dependent on me. What if I do something wrong and he gets sick? If I drop it, will he break something?

Or maybe you don't want a baby because the wrong man is next to you. You don’t admit it to yourself, but you feel with your spinal cord that the appearance of a third person will not strengthen your union, but, on the contrary, will only complicate everything. “As I understand now, at one time I didn’t want children, because I didn’t trust my husband and was ashamed of the hypothetical fate of a single mother in advance,” recalls Stasya. “For the most part, I was right. Although after a conversation with a psychologist (“since he brought you here, it means it’s important for him”), she decided. And the husband ran away as soon as the baby's teeth began to cut: children's cries prevented him from sleeping. And when I met my man, the desire to give birth arose almost immediately. I took this feeling as a guarantee that everything will be fine with us. And I was not mistaken!

NO HORMONES
Prolactin has antipodal hormones - adrenaline, cortisol and testosterone. They keep you constantly ready to fight, give strength and courage ... But they reduce femininity. The adrenal glands of zealous careerists constantly release these “no-hormones” into the bloodstream. So if you're worried about the lack of basic instinct, stop. Sadly, but a break in the career race will have to be done. At least not for long.

I don't want to be like mom!

If you didn’t have a relationship with your mother, then not wanting to have a child is a continuation of the child’s rebellion: “I don’t want to be like her!” Psychologists call this a violation of parental self-identification. It can also relate to the relationship with the father: he left the family, left you, little one, it hurt, and you don’t want your baby to experience the same pain. But in fact, more than anything in the world, you need to go through this path again with your child, rewriting your own childhood along the way, correcting in it what hurt you so much and still haunts you.

“I’m soon 27, married for 7 years, no children, because in all this time we have never tried to start them,” says Natasha. We protect ourselves like spies. We both can't stand these little, screaming, always demanding creatures. I want to live for my own pleasure, not everyone has children, there are so many interesting things in life ... Take my mother. She was a promising pianist, but she gave birth to me, putting an end to her musical career. So what? Dad left when I was not yet a year old. Mom started all over again with another man. But without children. Even without me. I grew up with my grandparents, I saw my mother only on Saturdays. Once a month. So why did she give birth to me? As a child, I was terribly worried that she was not around, I felt that I was preventing her from enjoying life, that I was not worthy of her love. And I'm not going to repeat her mistakes. And to friends who stutter about children, I always answer: “You need it - you give birth, but leave us alone! We do not like children and we are not going to cripple them with our dislike!

Behind the facade of the child-free slogan, there is always some kind of story. People do not want to transmit their childhood pain to generations. You can't do without a psychologist! As, however, in most cases, when the parental instinct refuses to remind of itself.

Wanting children is the norm of life, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bnature. But gradually you get used to your unwillingness - and it’s already somehow embarrassing to refuse it, to awaken parental feelings in yourself: you will have to explain to everyone around why you didn’t want to, but gave birth. So don't back yourself into a corner! From love to hate, as you know, one step. And from the reluctance to have a child to the desire to give birth to him at all costs - too. You'll see!

SLAVIC CROSS
In the era of perestroika, no one wanted to have children - it was just scary: criminal lawlessness, total shortages (diapers and milk disappeared from stores, and the most necessary medicines from maternity hospitals), the sexual revolution and mass unemployment. Under such conditions, the instinct of self-preservation prevailed over the instinct of procreation. Workaholism was considered the main virtue, and it completely ousted all thoughts of children and maternity leave from the brains. As a result, in 1991 we received a "Slavic cross": the birth rate curve intersected with the death rate curve and continued to fall. The current 20-year-olds are just those who, in spite of everything, managed to be born at the intersection of the “cross”. It is clear that for many of them maternal instinct is not so unconditional phenomenon.

Irina Kovaleva
TAMARA SCHLESINGER