Let me give you a hint, it’s not a pill or a hormone injectable.
In fact, it’s intangible.
It’s education.
Other than the standard contraceptives, the very act of giving our young children and youth a good education is a form of birth control for them.
There are many reasons why as explained below.
1. Knowledge And Application Of Birth Control Methods
For modern educated women, the knowledge of the many forms of birth control methods and the accessibility to them is a reason why we are able to plan when to have a child and control how many we may want.
Condoms, IUDs, birth control pills, implants, or even being knowledgeable in using natural family planning methods are the many ways she can use to avoid pregnancies.
The outcome is accidental pregnancies are reduced, and a husband and wife can have a child when both are ready to raise a family.
2. Empowering Women To Make Choices For Themselves
Secondly, being educated gives them the ability to make choices, whether choosing to pursue a life focusing on career ambition, or to be a mother and even a homemaker. It empowers women to consider what they want in the years after they have graduated and make the choices leading toward that path.
The fact is, she, may not even need to be married, as a career woman is self-sustaining, having her own income, and may not need a partner or husband to support her financially.
The commitment to marriage is due to the preference to have companionship and love, and not for monetary income or needing a husband to provide for her.
3. Career Ambition Limits The Resources To Have Many Children
Although many women dream of being able to have many kids and also go all out in their careers, the fact of the matter is having children requires a sacrifice of our time and energy, and that can take away our resources from work to meet the needs of the children and home.
Not to say it cannot be done, many women are able to juggle work and family life, but it comes with the caveat of having good family support, and babysitters or good child care services.
Even so, the time at home after work will be filled with taking care of our kids.
Not to mention being pregnant for 9 months, then comes postpartum, breastfeeding, and all the work that comes with taking care of a newborn.
Also, being educated means we are able to foresee the financial needs of raising children well.
From milk formula and diapers to funding their health insurance or building up an education fund, paying for childcare services, or even having homes with sufficient spaces to meet their needs along the years.
These considerations will limit the number of children she and her partner may want to have.
Above are three reasons why having an education is an effective method of birth control.
These days, in parts of the world where the population has access to good education, where public education is a key focus of their government, you will see a decline in birth rates.
In those regions, some couples choose to have one or two kids at most, and some may choose not to have children.
It will be an idea to fan out this concept to countries where birth rates are high and have many unwanted pregnancies.
While on the other end of the spectrum, this may create other social issues, being of an aging population or population decline in certain countries, it can be balanced out by government initiatives of longer paternal and maternal leaves, and government-funded childcare.
At the end of the day, even considering above factors, how many children a couple may want to have is their own personal choice.
Regardless being educated or not.