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God is forgiving, but nature isn't. Check out this week's Time magazine's article on fertility. The *peak* time of fertility for women is between about age 16 to 25. There is a little leeway at ages 25-30, but after that it's a rapid downhill decline. Most women who go to grad school (JD, PhD) are just barely starting their careers at 25 and are NOT going to "throw it all away," as they see it.

Unfortunately, after-25 is nowhere near as "cute" as before-25, and that's how you get a sour unmarried woman whose clock is ticking like the one inside the crocodile that was chasing Captain Hook.

I have no solution. How many men are willing to marry an 18-year old girl right out of high school, or a woman right out of college who plans to devote herself wholeheartedly to kinder und kuche? You guys out here - would you seriously? Because that's the only way it's going to turn around - marriage at 18, four kids by 26; the last one out of high school by 44, and then maybe a career.

From the NY Post - Health Section:

DON'T EXPECT PREGNANCY AT 40: STUDY

By MEGAN TURNER

April 8, 2002 -- Late motherhood among celebrities may make headlines but, for most women, waiting until 40 to have babies is too late, according to new research.

Actress Liz Hurley just gave birth to her first child at age 36, joining high-profile older moms like Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Jane Seymour and Iman, who all gave birth in their 40s.

But ambitious young women who hope to have kids are heading down a dangerous path if they think they can wait until 35 or beyond to start a family, says economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett in her new book, "Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children."

Women have embraced a "male model" of career focus, resulting in an "epidemic of childlessness" among professional women, she told Time magazine.

Hewlett conducted a national survey of 1,647 "high achieving" American women and found that 42 percent were still childless after age 40. That figure rose to 49 percent for women who earn $100,000 or more.

The survey also found that nearly nine out of 10 women were confident of their ability to get pregnant into their 40s.

But research shows that such widespread optimism is false, according to Time.

A woman's fertility begins to decline at age 27. At 40, half of her eggs are chromosomally abnormal; by 42, that figure is 90 percent.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, once a woman celebrates her 42nd birthday, the chances of her having a baby using her own eggs are less than 10 percent.

More bad news: At 20, the risk of miscarriage is about 9 percent; it doubles by age 35, then doubles again by the time a woman reaches her early 40s.