“The future is unstable”: Exploring changing fertility intentions in the United Kingdom during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveTo understand whether reproductive decision‐making among United Kingdom (UK) respondents had changed in light of the COVID‐19 pandemic and, if so, why COVID‐19 had led them to change their intentions.MethodsWe conducted a cross‐sectional online survey in January 2021. We asked survey participants if their fertility intentions had changed and to rate how aspects of their life had changed during COVID‐19. We also included an open‐ended question and asked participants to explain in their own words how COVID‐19 had influenced their reproductive decision‐making. We used descriptive and regression analyses to explore the quantitative data and thematically analyzed written responses.ResultsNine percent (n = 70) of our 789 UK respondents reported a change in fertility intention after the start of the pandemic. Changes in both pro‐natal and anti‐natal directions made the overall change in intentions small: there was a 2% increase across the sample in not intending a child between the two time points. Only increased financial insecurity was predictive of changing intentions. Responses to the open‐ended question (n = 103) listed health concerns, indirect costs of the pandemic, and changing work‐life priorities as reasons for changing their intentions.ConclusionWhile studies conducted at the beginning of the pandemic found that fertility intentions became more anti‐natal, we found little overall change in fertility intentions in January 2021. Our findings of small pro‐natal and anti‐natal changes in fertility intentions align with emerging UK birth rate data for 2021, which show minimal change in the total fertility rate in response to the pandemic.