To the surprise of social workers, however, the study found that teenagers gained no economic advantage by delaying childbirth until they were 20 or 21.

With so many women delaying childbirth and struggling with infertility, concerns are rising over vaginal births and possible harmful complications to hard-won babies.

In the generation since the home test's introduction, the proportion of women who, like me, delayed childbirth until their 30s or older has quadrupled.

"He told me, 'Any woman willing to delay labor and childbirth until she can get a solution in place is going to go the distance for us,"' she recalled.

But as increasing numbers of women have chosen to delay childbirth, they often learn they have fibroids before they have had children.

More women are delaying both marriage and childbirth, two events that traditionally have caused women to halt their education.

During the 1910s and 1920s, women delayed childbirth for economic opportunities that were present in urban areas.

The delay in fertility becomes a problem among middle class women when they delay childbirth past their fertility peak.

At the same time women in the West women began delaying childbirth longer and longer for education and career, creating increased infertility.

Studies show that a girl who is educated tends to delay marriage and childbirth until she is ready.