Being a mother is not my "life project", proclaims to AFP the Chilean lawyer Camila Ramirez, decided not to have children. A personal choice that is part of a heavy trend in Chile, which has become in 10 years the country with the lowest fertility rate in the Americas.
In ten years, births have fallen by 29% in Chile
Between 2013 and 2023, births fell by 29% in the South American country of 19.6 million inhabitants. It is 1.17 children per woman, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), far from the 2.1 necessary for the natural replacement of the population.
"Being a mother requires absolute self-denial. I love to travel and when I go on a trip, I do it alone. I don't ask anything of anyone, I simply disappear.", explains Ms. Ramirez, who juggles her professional activity with pursuing a master's degree. "I don't see myself having to worry about feeding." a child, "take care of his hobbies, and give priority to his well-being rather than mine", adds the 29-year-old lawyer.
According to the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Chile's fertility is lower than that of Italy, among the lowest in Europe, with a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.20.
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"What took decades in Europe, we see in Chile in 10 to 20 years"
Japan is the oldest country in the world, followed by Italy, where almost 30% of the population is over 65, according to the United Nations. "The changes in the issue of reproduction in Chilean society have been very rapid. What took decades in Europe, we see in Chile in 10 to 20 years.", explains Martina Yopo, sociologist at the Catholic University.
Women's access to education, work and contraception "relaxed gender and family norms in Chilean society." "Today, being a woman is not necessarily being a mother, it is not necessarily having children.", she adds.
According to projections, and despite the reception of immigrants who provided 17.4% of births in the country in 2021, the birth rate will continue to decline in Chile. If in 2023, births had already reached a historic low (171,992 births or -9.1% compared to the previous year), in the first half of 2024 only 70,336 births were registered, according to the INE.
“It’s an emergency, a health crisis”
"It's an emergency, a health crisis. (The birth rate) is the most important factor in economic and social matters.", alerts Anibal Scarella, president of the Chilean Society of Reproductive Medicine.
The decline in the birth rate "implies an increase in the elderly population who will most likely have to continue working " by pushing back the retirement age. "There will be no generational renewal", which will have economic consequences such as reduced growth and increased public spending on health and dependency, explains economist Jorge Berrios.
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"We do not help to reconcile the evolution of work and the desire to become pregnant"
As in developed countries, in Chile the age of the first child is being pushed back and in 2023, a third of births will be to women aged 30 to 34.
"We do not help to reconcile the evolution of work and the desire to become pregnant", points out Anibal Scarella, who underlines the need for information on the risks linked to the postponement of the age of motherhood and for better access to egg conservation and assisted reproduction.
This decline in births is accompanied by a drastic decrease in teenage pregnancies, which have fallen by 80% in two decades, according to the INE. In addition, vasectomies have increased by 887% in ten years, according to the Ministry of Health. And female sterilization has increased by 54% in public hospitals over the same period.
Kinesiologist Tamara Guzman, 41, never wanted to become a mother. She sees her decision reinforced by her "friends who are mothers, super tired, stressed, who have difficulty paying for the nanny, kindergarten, diapers" Cars "everything is very expensive."
A couple chat in the Bicentennial Park in Santiago, on September 5, 2024 (AFP – RAUL BRAVO)
"I came to antinatalism"
Isidora Rugeronni, a bank executive, is one of those women who took the radical decision to be sterilized. She was only 21 years old at the time. "I felt that there was a lot of evil in this world, a lot of injustice, and I came to antinatalism, a philosophy that states that it is unethical to have children given the current state of the world," she explains.
"If I don't have children, I can be a more committed activist and have a real impact on society", she explains, now aged 25.
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