As women {especially some of us Liminas women!} we often attribute the illogical need baby nowfeeling to our fertility declining with our age and to some extent science can back us up on that.  As we reach the age of 27, our fertility begins to gradually decline, and at the age of 35, it dramatically drops (Scientific American).  A study at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences studied 782 couples and found that 50 percent of women between the ages of 19 and 26 had a chance of becoming pregnant during any one menstrual cycle if they have intercourse two days prior to ovulation.  This percentage dropped as the woman’s age increased: 40 percent for women between the ages of 27 and 34 and 30 percent for women over the age of 35.  Our declining fertility seems like the perfect rationale for the seemingly incessant ticking of our biological clock.
I have always had the perception that this all-encompassing longing that started for me around the age of 25 was due to evolution and the necessity for women to have children at a certain age before the decline of fertility. Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection has led us to believe that throughout human civilization women who have waited until over the age of 30 to have children probably did not pass on their genes as successfully as those that had children at a younger age.  And I’m not the only one who thinks like this—I’ve asked other  women my age and I’ve found that many others believe that the biological clock is a real thing.
So is this ticking biological clock real or is it only in our minds? After doing some research on the subject, I found that contrary to popular belief, there is actually very little evidence to suggest that the ticking female biological clock is an automatic psychological and physical response that starts around the decline of fertility.  This strong emotion we feel to have a baby, may be just that, an emotion.
In an academic article entitled What is “baby fever”? Contrasting evolutionary explanations of proceptive behavior, Anna Rotkirch defined baby fever as, “A conscious wish for children that is connected with persistent, bodily emotion and reoccurring, spontaneous thoughts…”
Ok, so that sounds about right!  I definitely can relate to that persistent bodily emotion that I can’t seem to shake after seeing or playing with a child.  But what I want to know is, is this baby fever biological or social?   Rotkirch notes that there have been a few theories put forth regarding baby fever and it’s cause.  One of the big theories is that it is actually a socially constructed clock and that there is no biological basis for wanting a child.
As social constructionism became dominant in Western social sciences in the 1980s, a view emerged where the “biological clock” was seen as a purely social phenomenon. The lay perception of an innate desire for children was rejected. As one women’s studies textbook puts it: “This /maternal/ ‘instinct’ is characterized by two desires: to have children, and to care for them. (…) However, it has become increasingly clear that this ‘instinct’ is a socially constructed myth.” (Nicolson 1997, 383).
Childbearing until recently was not presented as a choice.   Our grandparents and great-grandparents became mothers whether they wanted children or not, but now women have much more control over their fertility and as a result those women in developed countries that do not want to have children simply don’t.
So it seems that the environmental and sociological pressures cause the onset of the irrational and uncontrollable I want a baby now! sentiment.  The sociological pressure to settle down and have children as our parents did in the past, the pressure of our surrounding environment and watching a large number of friends in their late twenties and early thirties get married and begin their own families, the burden of feeling the rush to get motherhood “taken care of” sooner rather than later with the knowledge that the risks of health complications increase the older we get, and the terrifying notion that our fertility {and our chances of actually having a child} drastically drops at the age of 35 may be the unconscious drivers to that ticking biological clock constantly ringing in your ears.
So take your time {because you have it} and hit the snooze button the next time you hear your biological clock ringing!
Signs that may cause you to think that your biological clock is ticking:
  • Pictures of newborn babies bring tears to your eyes.
  • There’s a crying baby on the plane behind you and instead of feeling anger, you feel a twinge of sorrow that you can’t console the baby yourself.
  • You look at pregnant bellies and feel pangs of jealousy.
  • You find that you’re almost disappointed when your period arrives on time. Not that you were “trying”, but…
  • You think all men with babies are hot….without even checking out what they look like
  • You find yourself wandering into baby stores despite the fact that you don’t know a single person with a baby.
  • You feel wistfulness when thinking about your babysitting days and are actually considering nannying as a new career.
~Lauren Isobel
So, what do you think?  Is the biological clock a real thing?

http://www.liminas.com/is-your-biological-clock-really-ticking-2/