REACH Specialists: New Jennifer Lopez Movie Reflects Reality of More Single-Mothers-by-Choice

REACH's Dr. Teaff Says New Jennifer Lopez Film Reflects Reality of More Single-Mothers-by-Choice

CHARLOTTE, April 13, 2010 – The latest Jennifer Lopez movie premieres April 23 as the most recent evidence of art imitating maternal life, say North Carolina fertility doctors, who report a strong upswing locally in single women choosing to parent alone without male partners.

In the new feature film "The Back Up Plan,” Jennifer Lopez plays a 30-something single woman who would prefer childrearing with a committed partner but feels she has a choice of parenting alone or not at all.

Fertility specialists at Reproductive Endocrinology Associates of Charlotte (REACH) note that about one in ten patients today is a single woman, in contrast to negligible numbers a decade ago.

“While fertility centers like ours were originally established to help couples, we are seeing a societal shift toward acceptance of women starting families without male partners,” said Dr. Nancy L. Teaff, reproductive endocrinologist at REACH.

“Women feel pressure to find a suitable partner ready for the responsibility of raising children before their biological clocks prevent it. They older they get, the less willing they are to postpone a birth, even if it means going it alone.”

Nicole Epstein of Charlotte, 36, became a single mother at age 33 with Teaff’s help. “I asked Dr. Teaff if she thought I was crazy to come in for treatment when I was still so young,” Epstein said. “She said it was far better than waiting until I was 37, when I would most likely need more complex treatment to get pregnant.”

Epstein got pregnant on her second try using intrauterine insemination (IUI), one form of artificial insemination. Her daughter, Tessa, is now 2, and Epstein would like to have more children in the future.

Not all fertility practices admit single women for treatment, although the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) ethics committee states, "As a matter of ethics, we believe that the ethical duty to treat persons with equal respect requires that fertility programs treat single persons... Unless other aspects of the situation…such as serious doubts about whether they will be fit or responsible child rearers or the fact that the program does not offer anyone a desired service…”

Childbearing by unmarried women has increased to historic levels, according to the most recent preliminary data (2008) from the Centers for Disease Control. Nearly four in 10 babies born in the United States were born to single mothers. Of 4.3 million total births nationally, 1.7 million were to single mothers, an increase of 27 percent from 2002, when steady increases began.

Rosanna Hertz, co-director of the Institute on Gender and the New Global Economy and author of “Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women are Choosing Parenthood Without Marriage and Creating the New American Family,” estimates that approximately 2.7 million American women are single mothers by choice. Because U.S. Census and CDC reports do not distinguish between single mothers who are separated, divorced, widowed, living with an unmarried partner, or had never married when the data on births to single mothers were reported, this is only an estimate.

Single Mothers By Choice, an international organization, has more than doubled its membership over the past 25 years, and one of the country's largest sperm banks reported that one-third of its clients are single, heterosexual women.