Family Planning

Most U.S. couples are now planning the size of their families, and the size they are planning for, on the average, is three children. So reports the University of Michigan, after a survey of 2,700 women living with their husbands and aged 18 to 39 (this age group includes 94% of the nation's child-bearing women). At this rate, noted Survey Sociologist Ronald Freedman, the baby boom will continue: it would take only 2.2 children per couple to maintain the population at its present level.

Most couples now deliberately regulate the number of their children and the intervals between births. But half such couples do not use birth control measures until after at least one pregnancy, and many not until after as many as four pregnancies. Of the women who had not yet used birth control, nearly all (except the subfertile) intended to do so at some future time. Even among Roman Catholics, Dr. Freedman found, 87% of the normally fertile couples had used or intended to use some means of family limitation. "Many," he reported, "use the rhythm method, but many do not."

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