To Breed or not to Breed?

That's the seemingly simple question tackled by this fascinating dive into the reasons people decide to have or not have children.
"Maybe Baby: 28 Writers Tell the Truth About Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness, Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of Their Lives" by Lori Leibovich is without a doubt the most interesting and personally relevant book I have read this year. I recommend this read to everyone - men women, those with kids, those without any, straight or gay, coupled or single, traditional or progressive, if you've ever asked the question of whether you want a child, or more children, this book will speak to you. In an interesting twist of fate, or as the Editor calls it, "a case of art imitating life", Lori found out she was pregnant three weeks after beginning work on this book.

Relieving, thought provoking, voyeuristic and introspective, it's simply captivating. A must read.

Excerpt from an interview with the author by Mamazine.com:
Mamazine.com: For those who haven't read the anthology and didn't follow Salon's "To Breed or Not to Breed" series, how did Maybe Baby get its start? And what, in particular, drove your interest in this subject?

Lori Leibovich: A few years ago a woman in her thirties wrote to Salon, begging us to publish more stories about people who had chosen not to have children. She was the primary breadwinner in her family, and was struggling with the question of whether or not to procreate. "What would be the return on the investment?" she wrote. "Are there any laws that would require my children to pay for my nursing home when I am old? Are they going to be a sufficient hedge against poverty and loneliness?" This letter sparked a heated office-wide email debate. Some of my colleagues thought that anyone who was looking at childbearing in such stark, financial terms shouldn't be a parent in the first place. Others felt the letter writer was being refreshingly honest about her fears.

Since the question of whether or not to procreate spurred such a contentious discussion in our office, we decided to explore it in a series. I asked five staff writers to answer the question, "To Breed or Not to Breed?" From the minute we posted the first essay—a piece by Michelle Goldberg, a happily married 28-year old who has no maternal instincts but worries she'll have regrets one day if she doesn't have children—we were flooded with hundreds of emotional emails from our readers, sharing their own personal stories. After sifting through the letters—some of which we are going to reprint in the paperback edition of the book—we decided that this topic was too big for a series, and deserved a book. So I began to recruit other writers.