Danish parents having second child sooner

Memories of sleepless nights and nappy changes seem to be fading a bit quicker

Danish parents have started to wait a bit less between having their first and second child.

From 1995 to 2015, the waiting time between the first and second child fell from 3.9 to 3.6 years, according to an analysis by local government association Kommunernes Landsforening’s newsletter, Momentum. The numbers are based on statistics collected by figures from Statistics Denmark.

The shorter waiting time between children may be linked to the rising age of first-time mothers.

Older moms
During the same 10-year period, the average age of first-time mothers increased from 27.3 years to 29.1 years.

“Many factors are involved in the increasing age of first-time mothers,” Lisbeth B Knudsen, a professor emerita of sociology at Aalborg University, told Momentum. “And couples who want more than one child may hurry in order to avoid the health risks associated with getting pregnant when older.”

The statistics also showed that the younger a mother is when she has her first child, the more likely she is to wait a while before having a second baby.

READ MORE: More older women giving birth in Denmark

On average, women who have their first child at the age of 16 wait seven years before becoming a mother again, while first-time 40-year-old mothers averaged only a two-year waiting time.

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