Voluntary childles's sight on childbearing: A study in Rasht

The purpose of this article is to describe the desirability of childbearing among voluntarily childless in the Rasht and to understand their action on childlessness on the basis of Beck and Beck-Greensheim's theory of "The Risk Society" and "Individualization". The method of research is qualitative fieldwork and the research technique is an in-depth interview with thirteen individuals who have been voluntarily childless for at least 5 years. Findings indicate that people think on having or not having a child as a choice which can be delayed or suppressed due to other choices. However, there is a difference between the two sexes on tendency to childlessness. Women consider maternity as crucial to their identity, but men do not have the same views about fatherhood. The most important reasons for being childless can be summarized in five category: high responsibilities for child support, social constraints for parents, marital constraints for parents, high child-bearing costs, and pregnancy-related risks for women. The typology of voluntary malformation shows three categories of childlessness. permanent childlessness, temporary childlessness and those who did not have adopted specific decisions to have children or not.