Crain's New York Business Article that quotes me

Can we swing it?; Baby boom may be ending as parents wonder if they can afford childrenBYLINE: Miriam Kreinin SouccarSECTION: BUSINESS LIVES; Pg. 27LENGTH: 783 words
Nearly every night, the dreaded Excel spreadsheet comes out.
Shira Weiss and her husband turn to the computer program over and over again to recalculate their household budget. They aren't trying to figure out whether they can afford a larger house or a new car. They are trying to make what they once assumed would be an obvious decision: whether to have a third child.
Both Ms. Weiss, a public relations consultant, and her husband, director of sales and marketing at a dental imaging company, still have jobs. But fear over the worsening recession is putting them into a prepartum depression.
``We always wanted to have three kids, but there's that question mark hanging over the economy. We don't know if it's going to get better or worse,'' says 35-year-old Ms. Weiss. ``So here we are wondering, is a third child a luxury item?''
The great baby boom of the 21st century may be coming to an end. After more than five years of Bugaboo stroller traffic jams on sidewalks from the Upper East Side to Westchester, the economic crisis is putting a damper on procreation. Though it's too early to know if birthrates are actually going down, many families are rethinking their plans to have a third or fourth child, or even a first. In a city where expensive fertility treatments and adoption are more common because many women put off conceiving until they are older, the decision to proceed right now is even more vexing.
``the current economic climate has brought more focus on the high cost of raising a child to age 18 and then putting a child through college,'' says Susan Newman, a social psychologist. ``As more and more people lose jobs, couples are being forced to think hard before they add to their families.''
Fertility rates typically fall in times of economic uncertainty. During and after the Great Depression, women went from having an average of three children during the previous decade to two for the first time in U.S. history. And following the 1973 recession, birth rates fell to 65.0 per 1,000 people in 1976 from 68.8 in 1973, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
The downturn in the New York City area--where large families have become a status symbol for the wealthy in recent years--may be even sharper because costs for housing and school are higher here than in many parts of the country.
``One of the perks of being an upper-middle-class family in Brooklyn or Manhattan was to have kids and send them to private school,'' says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. ``Those folks may be especially hard-hit and will probably delay [having] kids for the short term.''
Tammy Kahn Fennell, vice president of VintageRareStuff.com, has been married for three years and was planning to start trying to conceive. But since the recession started, the 27-year-old and her husband have become too scared to take the plunge.
``Businesses go out real fast in this market, so I need to be working at 100%,'' Ms. Fennell says. ``If I had to go on bed rest or something during the pregnancy, I don't think we could survive at this point. And then, of course, there's paying for the baby, too.''
Difficult decisions
the already difficult decision is even harder for people who want to adopt or have to go through lengthy and costly fertility treatments.
Ms. Weiss turned to IVF to get pregnant with her second son and will need to repeat those treatments if she decides to have a third. The whole process costs at least $30,000.
Publicist Becky Fawcett and her husband spent their life savings of $200,000 on fertility treatments and finally adoption fees to become parents. Their son is now 3, and they are trying to adopt another baby. Luckily, they paid 90% of the adoption fees for their second child before her husband, who worked for Bear Stearns, lost his job.
``If we had to pay that money today, having a second child would have had to go on hold,'' Ms. Fawcett says. ``It would kill me right now if what stood between me becoming a mother again was money.''
The battle between the bank account and the biological clock is creating disagreements in some marriages, even among couples who can conceive naturally.
Sarah Caron, a freelance writer and editor, is anxious to have a third child soon. Her husband, a manager at an electronics store, thinks two might be enough, especially now.
The couple talks about the subject often, and Ms. Caron even coaches her 1-year-old and 3-year-old to nod their heads in front of their dad when she asks them if they want a new sibling.
Despite the worsening recession, Ms. Caron is confident she will win out. ``I'm sure we'll work it out somehow in my favor,'' she says. ``My goal is to start trying again by summer.''