More than intentions: Importance of motherhood predicts first but not subsequent births

Even though there is a strong association between fertility intentions and fertility outcomes, fertility intentions do not consistently predict fertility outcomes, leading to questions about the utility of the concept. Our goal is to assess whether a measure of importance of motherhood could replace or add to fertility intentions, and whether there is a difference between predicting first or subsequent births. Using the two-wave National Survey of Fertility Barriers (women initially ages 25-45, n = 1381), this study applies sequential logistic regression analysis with missing data imputation to explore associations of prospective fertility intentions and importance of motherhood with subsequent births among women. Results indicate that both fertility intentions and importance of motherhood have independent associations with subsequent births among nulliparous women, but importance of motherhood does not predict having a birth among women who already have at least one child. This suggests that importance of motherhood contributes beyond fertility intentions to understanding whether nulliparous women have a child or remain childless, but not to understanding achieved fertility.