Definition of "childbearing" [child•bear•ing]

• The human act or process of giving birth; parturition. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The only way "society" can eliminate delays in childbearing is to cause delays in the re-election of our representatives in Washington who oppose eliminating them."
• "In Europe, where there are high levels of childbearing outside of marriage, when childbearing is not happening in marriage, it's happening in cohabitation."
• "In contrast, spunky breeders underestimate the long-run benefits of progeny precisely because most of them occur well after childbearing is an option, such as creating people who will give a crap about you in 50 years."