By Angelica Jimenez–

Maria Cardenas leads a full life-she juggles four different jobs, a serious relationship, social commitments with a multitude of friends and raises six cats-but children are not a part of this picture.

Cardenas, 47, is one of a minority of Latinas who have made the decision to either delay starting a family or not have children altogether. There’s a growing trend of women who are waiting to have children until later in life; however the birthrate for Latinas remains the highest among other ethnic groups.

Cardenas is a second-generation Mexican-American on her father’s side and third-generation on her mother’s. Cardenas parent’s divorced when she was 8, after her mother decided to leave her abusive father.

Cardenas said she felt pressure from her mother to get married and start a family, but her mother’s feelings changed after seeing her sons’ failed marriages.

“My mother stopped pestering me (about having children) when my brother started having kids,” said Cardenas. “And it’s funny because now my mom says, ‘You’re the smart one for never getting married.’”

There are also more and more women having children outside the confines of marriage compared with the previous generations. And with women achieving higher levels of education, there is a correlation with lower levels of fertility.

Second generation Latinas have lower birth rates than foreign-born or even third generation Latinas. The average age women give birth for the first time is 25, which is a record high.

According to the U.S. Census Report, the percentage of women ages 40 to 44 with no children doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent over the past 30 years. In 2006, women in this age group who had children had an average of 1.9 children each. The only group resisting the trend is Latinas, who are averaging 2.3 children by their 40s.

Chicago is her current home, but Cardenas grew up in Ohio and attended Ohio State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism. Her family, which includes her parents, stepmother, brothers half siblings and nieces and nephews, still lives in Ohio.

There was a time in her life when Cardenas thought about having children. She said in her late 20s, she wanted children, but she also wanted the right person in her life. She said she’s a traditionalist in that sense and would want to have children within the context of marriage.

After fibroids were found in her uterus, Cardenas underwent a partial hysterectomy. There was a moment where she grappled with the lost of her reproductive organ and how this would affect her ability to ever have children. She asked her surgeon to save her uterus if she could, but it wasn’t possible.

“I have my ovaries and she took my fallopian tubes and my uterus, and I have no regrets.” Cardenas said.

If she had children, Cardenas said she wouldn’t have been able to have the experiences she’s had including attending a writer’s conference in Maui, spending a year and a half in Arizona, studying martial arts and traveling to London.

Even though Cardenas and her boyfriend of 10 months, Dave, are committed and love one another, she said she isn’t interested in raising a child.

“Maybe next lifetime,” said Cardenas. “The only babies I want to work on are my own writing projects and other creative pursuits.”

WTOP and CBS affiliate in Washington D.C. reporter Patricia Guadalupe said she wasn’t raised in a household where the focus was to get married and have children.

“I grew up in a large family where my father was very clear to his daughters that we have all the opportunities as our brothers or any other men out there,” Guadalupe said. “In fact, as a military and federal government man, he could iron better than our mother and shined our shoes every Sunday night before school so our shoes looked brand new.”

Her mother directly asked if she would get married and have children, and Guadalupe honestly responded she wasn’t interested. Guadalupe’s family extends to her nieces and nephews, and she said she is happy with the choices she has been free to make on her own.

“I feel very fulfilled with all the nieces and nephews I have,” said Guadalupe. “I just chose not to go down that path, and I have no regrets.”

Guadalupe doesn’t see children as a sacrifice and believes it is possible to achieve other goals while raising children. Guadalupe has covered the White House and Congress, and worked in Mexico and Central America, specifically covering conditions in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala in the early 90s after the civil wars.

“I do feel that I could have accomplished everything if I had children because I see some of my friends do it,” said Guadalupe.

Guadalupe questions why women are always asked this question while men often escape such pressures. Men aren’t expected to stay home and raise children, where women still are, said Guadalupe.

“Let’s not look at it as an anomaly when men are involved in their children’s lives; they’re supposed to be,” said Guadalupe. “All too often women become enablers for the type of behavior men get away with of doing nothing or very little in their children’s lives because they are ‘too busy working.’”

Dr. Nayeli Chavez, assistant professor The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, said there is a trend where Latinas are waiting longer to have children. She said the reasons are tied to education, economic and acculturation levels.

“Latinas who go to school tend to wait,” said Chavez. “Second generation Latinas are raised here, and their parents are raised here; so their socio-economic status tends to be higher.”

Chavez, 31, is an accomplished Latina who isn’t married with children, and she said her mother is very understanding but has asked about her plans to marry.

“My mom has asked me, ‘What’s going to happen when I die? Who’s going to take care of you?’” Chavez said.

For Latinos, there isn’t that same expectation to get married early and start a family.

“The gender roles for Latinos and Latinas are very different,” said Chavez. “When men wait, it is viewed more positively-there have more opportunities to date multiple women and be more independent. Latinas have pressure from parents, extended family and the community.”

Her clients have shared the same experiences with her, but those expectations don’t come from a concern, said Chavez.

“There is a sense of fear that there’s no one to protect you,” said Chavez. “There’s still fear that women aren’t going to be as respected, protected and will be alone; they want their daughter to have some one.”

Cardenas shares advice to other women who might be struggling with whether or not to have children.

“If you really do want a child, and the right partner doesn’t come along, then have that child or better yet, adopt a child or foster a child to see if you really want a kid,” said Cardenas. “If you don’t want to have kids, that’s a perfectly valid choice and that’s no one’s choice but yours.

Why shouldn’t you want to accomplish your own dreams and goals?”

Angelica Jimenez is a graduate journalism student at Columbia College Chicago.