Reflections on fertility and postponed parenthood—interviews with highly educated women and men without children in Sweden

Figures & data

Table I. Examples of condensed meaning units, codes, subcategories, and categories.

Meaning units	Codes	Subcategory	Category
‘In a larger city one has so many other things to keep you busy anyway, so children come significantly later. Yes, but yeah, maybe it's time, I thought a little like that, that it's about time'	City life offers many alternatives to family formation	A consequence of contemporary lifestyles	Postponed parenthood—a rational adaptation to societal changes
‘To delay having children is probably due to the increased fear of growing up, to seriously be an adult because it's so nice to have to worry only about yourself'	A sign of extended immaturity, or egocentricity
‘Today it is expected to not only get an education but also to travel, learn a new language, live overseas and much more, and parenthood doesn't fit so well in the story'	Expectations of further learning and striving for experiences and adventures	A consequence of competing priorities
‘There are more women who study at universities, more women than men that graduate, and maybe the birth of a child is viewed as an obstacle to one's career, that must be the explanation'	Women's increased investment in higher education
‘To have a child before 25 is not exactly something that is encouraged and maybe also not having children after 40 either'	Socially mediated perceptions about the timing of childbearing	A consequence of prevailing discourses about parenthood
‘There is such an incredibly negative view about having a child when you are young, and among my friends there are many that see it as completely abnormal to have a child before 30'	Early parenthood is unfavourable

Table II. Women's and men's reflections on fertility and postponed parenthood.

Subcategories	Categories
Unconsidered and taken for granted	Fertility—an imperceptive and retrievable capacity
Unpredictable and different for women and men
Restorable by medical technology
Replaceable by alternatives to a biological child
A consequence of contemporary lifestyles	Postponed parenthood—a rational adaptation to societal changes
A consequence of competing priorities
A consequence of prevailing discourses about parenthood