TheBump.com and ForbesWoman.com Survey Results

Posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 9:00 AM

A recent study has found that those biological clocks are ticking faster than you may have ever imagined: Around 90 percent of the average woman’s eggs are gone by the time she celebrates her 30th birthday, according to recently published research from the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University in Scotland. But as we balance biology with modern goals like a fulfilling career, some semblance of a social life, and a happy marriage, is there ever really a perfect age to have a baby?

Recently, TheBump.com set out to answer that question by joining forces with ForbesWoman to create the Working Moms Survey. And here’s what we found out:

Timing of first child

•  76% of respondents feel that the “sweet spot” for a working woman to have or adopt her first baby is between ages 25 and 34. And 42 percent thought that 25 to 29 was the best time.
•  The top reasons that people chose these ages was because it would allow enough time to establish career/financial security and because it is more likely that they would be ready to become parents.
•  More than 17% of women said that there is no ideal age.
•  Non-mothers were more likely to think that 30 to 34 is the ideal range.
•  The majority of moms surveyed (42%) had their first baby between the ages of 25-29, while 11% had their first child after age 35.
•  68% of moms are satisfied with the timing of their first child.
•  82% of moms who had their first child from 25 to 29 were content with the timing of their first child -- the most of any group.
•  35% of moms who had their first child at 30 to 34 wish they'd had their child at a younger age.
•  57% of moms who had their first child at 35 to 39 wish they'd had their child at a younger age.
•  Only a quarter of moms surveyed said they felt pressure from family, friends or partner to have or adopt a child, but women in their 30s were more likely to feel that pressure.

Planning for multiple children

• More than half (56%) of women plan to have or adopt two children, and more than a third (35%) plan to have three or more.
•  At least 57% of respondents had employers with family-friendly benefits. 23.8% had paid maternity leave and 23.2% had flexible hours.For women planning to work and have multiple children, 20% said that they will start having children earlier, 13% said that they will start having children later, 41% said it won't affect the timing and 15% aren't sure yet. 12% said that they don't plan to work and have multiple children.
•  56% of respondents said they wanted two children, 27% said they wanted three, and 8% said they wanted four or more.

Deciding to go back to work after baby

•  59% of women felt that they had to return to work -- even though 73% of them didn’t feel pressure from the people around them.
•  93% of the women surveyed worked full time before they had their first child. 76% worked full time after they had their first child.
•  4% of women worked part time before they had their first child and 15% worked part time after they had their first child.
•  63% of working moms had working moms growing up, but only 30% said it influenced their decisions to also be working moms.

Motherhood and careers

•  71% of non-moms and 56% of working moms think motherhood negatively impacts a woman’s career. But only 30% of working moms said motherhood had negatively impacted their own careers.
•  64% of working moms feel like they have a strong support network in case of an emergency.
•  66% of women work the same number of hours post-baby. 29% worked fewer hours, while 4% worked more.
• At least 57% of respondents had employers with family-friendly benefits. 24% had paid maternity leave and 23% had flexible hours.

Feelings about work after baby

•  The leading emotions of working moms who’d returned to work after their first child were feeling guilty, overwhelmed, stressed, sad, and anxious.
•  60% of women at least somewhat agreed that they were happy to be back at work after having a child.
•  59% of women at least somewhat agreed that they no longer cared as much about work after having a child.
• 50% of women at least somewhat agreed that returning to work was harder than they thought it would be.
• 37% of women at least somewhat agreed that returning to work was easier than they thought it would be.
• 38% of women at least somewhat agreed that being a mom made them better employees
• 34% of women at least somewhat agreed that colleagues viewed or treated them differently after they had a baby.

Looking for more results? Find them here!