The consequences of pregnancy
Pregnancy can lead to severe physical and mental negative consequences for women. It seems to me that it's cruel and careless for a woman not to know about this, or knowing about it, to ignore such information. The same applies to men in their attitude toward their partner's pregnancy.
I want to provide examples of negative consequences of pregnancy for women here. Some of them, as far as I understand, can be corrected or mitigated by taking necessary measures. But for the most part, this resembles a lottery with one's health.
This study indicates that pregnancy can have a significant impact on daily activities, work, sleep, and overall quality of life for women, often negatively affecting their ability to perform daily tasks and usual roles.
Here it states the negative impact of pregnancy on women's mental health. The study showed that symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress are significant factors that negatively affect the quality of life of pregnant women. In Australia, postpartum depression affects one in five mothers.
This article lists consequences such as: urinary incontinence, chronic pain related to the consequences of vaginal birth; abdominal muscle separation, weight gain, increase in shoe size, abdominal wall muscle separation creating a gap between abdominal muscles; sagging breasts, postpartum hair loss, rectal problems, decreased sexual desire, stretch marks and other skin changes.
Another article in The Lancet journal provides an even more impressive list of negative consequences. I won't list them all here.
It's interesting to note that according to this data, each woman should have 2.1 children for the population to grow or at least not decline. This number is known as the replacement fertility rate. It varies greatly from country to country. For South Korea it equals 0.78, while for Niger it's 6.73. For developed countries it's lower, and for developing countries it's the opposite.
This is not a post calling for not having children, just perhaps many women, and especially men, underestimate the negative consequences of pregnancy, thinking something like "my mother gave birth, my grandmother gave birth and everything was fine."