Many women now expect - and need - to have a career. If they also want children, how do they fit them in? How easy is it to take a break from a job to have a baby? When is the right time to do it?
Talk about this from the mother's point of view. When is a good time, financially and emotionally, to have children? What are the advantages and drawbacks of waiting until you are financially comfortable? What about the health aspects?
Discuss with young people what they know about how pregnancy affects older women.
Also think about how it seems from the child's perspective. If parents have children later, that means they are older as the child grows up.
Some 15-year-olds' parents are in their thirties. Others are nearly 50 or older. What difference does it make? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Later children mean smaller families. Over the next decade, British couples will have an average 1.73 children, not the often-quoted 2.4 of previous generations. How does this affect growing up? Is it important for children to have brothers or sisters?
More women are choosing not to have children at all. Fifty years ago, only nine per cent of women in the UK did not have a child. Latest trends suggest the proportion of childless women will be nearer 22 per cent.
Talk about some of the reasons for this. Were there pressures on women to have children in the past, even if they didn't particularly want to be mothers? Does society now expect women to earn a living?
Relate counsellors say that they are seeing more problems between couples who disagree about having children. A common scenario is when the man wants a child to make the family "complete", while the woman realises the impact it will have on her and doesn't feel the same. Talk about some ways to resolve these tensions.
