I am not now nor will I ever be pregnant again, but a lot of gm's want more children, so I was kind of wondering about what is the best ammount of time to wait between pregnancies. I have heard that waiting less than a year puts tremendous strain on the mothers body and stores of calcium and nutrients, so most docs don't reccomend that. But I still don't know what the BEST ammount of time is, or even if there is one. I have heard everything from 6 mos - 3 years, and I'm sure it changes like if you decide to breastfeed one baby, then it would probably make sense to wait longer than if you are ff. I don't know if this makes much sense, but any info would be helpful.
medically i have heard one year, because it takes one year for your body to get back to how it was pre-pregnancy. but i am not sure.
if i never would've had a child, i wanted my children to be apart about 2 years, but right now i don't want another child because i am a full time student, have a child and work 30 hours a week... and i can't afford it. so more than likely i will wait until i am done w/ school, lyric's in school & stuff like that.... so it'll be like, 5 more years probably! :D
Hmmm...I've never thought about it that way before~ so now I'm wondering if that is why my second pregnancy was soooo much worse than my first. I got pregnant with my daugher when my son was 9 months old. I wanted to get pregnant when my son turned 1, but you know...OOPS! Anyways, during my second pregnancy I got vericose (sp?) veins where I did not know you could get them- I constantly felt like I had been kicked between the legs by a horse! I also had a lot of unexplained bleeding my whole last trimester. So Yeah, maybe waiting a year is best. BUT my son and daughter get along really well and play all day so I really like that they are so close in age now.
There is a whole book about this called He Hit Me First by the Gesell Institute. It is about sibling relationships. This book says 4 1/2 to 7 years between births is optimal. I am personally planning on waiting that long simply because I want to know I am recovered from the birth and my older child has been breastfeed and allowed to wean (or at the end of our breastfeeding relationship) before having another. I want to be able to baby my child through the toddler years before having a new baby. I know I would be way stressed with 2 or more children that I birthed very close together.
I am considering having another when I am done with school and in a stable job. If I am still single I may look into adoption of an older child (I don't want to adopt a baby) or I may look into artificial insemination.
I am 2 years and 9 months older than my sister Sarah. I am a junior in high school and she is an old 8th grader (would be in 9th if she were in public school). I love love love being close in age because we have such a great sibling relationship that is more like being best friends. My mom went back to work 3 days after she had me, and not because she had to, because she wanted to. She doesn't really like babies (which I don't understand, I love babies!). When she had my sister, she took three months maternity leave. I was always jealous of that until she explained that she spent all that time with ME and not Sarah. Of course this is very privileged because not everyone has the option to take maternity leave of this length and I fully admit that. Letting the body recover is very important of course because we have to take care of ourselves as women, as humans (mentally and physically). I just love my close in age bond with my sister. My friend Jamie is very jealous of it because her older brother is six years older and she says that she feels like she does not know him very well. On the otherhand, I know people who LOVE having older older siblings because they have a mentor instead of just a party buddy like my sister and me.
Physically, I have read two years from birth to next pregnancy, and liek Delphiki said, 4-7 years for sibling relationships.
IMO, i think that siblings that are 1.5-2.5 years apart would get along the best. My sis and i are 19 months apart and although we argue, its really great to have someone like a best friend there for you all the time. As for health wise, i have heard a year but i am sure it depends on the person.
I've heard that for the mother's health, pregnancies should be spaced about 18months apart. It's supposed to give your body enough time to recover, while not letting your body forget how accomodate a pregnancy.
I come from a family with many closely spaced children. I don't think my parents intended it this way- but they just kept getting pregnant. There was also a set of twins in there. Either way, 9/82, tiwns in 9/83, 11/84 and 6/86. Mom later had a series of miscarriages- I would suspect because her body just couldn't handle yet another pregnancy.
I enjoyed growing up with kids close to my age. We have a good relationship overall. That said, my younger sisters are 5 years apart, and they are also pretty close, even at 12 and 7. I think it depends on the child's personality and how the parents raise the children. Growing up, I only knew my own family and wasn't comparing the relationship I had with my parents and siblings toanyone else.
For my future family, I intend to let nature take its course. As I've said in other places, I would like to have 4 or 5 children, and I'll be "older" before I'll have the opportunity to start my family. I don't want to be 40 years old with a toddler, so it'll have to be reasonably close (as in 1-3 years between children).
I guess its not something I think that it is worth worrying much about. :-) I have high hopes that my future kids will turn out well regardless of the spacing between my children 8)