Mynarska, Monika2024-02-092024-02-092013Family Forum, 2013, T. 3, s. 55-77.2084-1698http://theo-logos.pl/xmlui/handle/123456789/13028Even though survey studies recurrently show that Poles want to have children and that parenthood is important to them, more and more Polish women remain childless. This discrepancy calls for a closer consideration. We need to understand a nature of childbearing desires and intentions much better and investigate obstacles which m ight prevent women from fulfilling them. In this paper, I analyse 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with childless women aged 37-46. The qualitative methodology is applied to explore what preferences, circumstances and life-choices of the respondents have led them to childlessness. The respondents discussed several factors: A lack of a partner, fecundity problems, postponement of childbearing related to employment or life priorities other than family and childbearing. However, the results show that it is rarely possible to find a single reason for remaining childless, as various factors collide and interact in women’s lives.plAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Polandhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/pl/childlessnessbezdzietnośćPolandPolskaqualitative interviewswywiady jakościowechildbearing desirespragnienie rodzeniakobietawomanprzyczyny bezdzietnościcauses of childlessnessbezdzietność z wyboruchildlessness by choicebezdzietność nie z wyboruchildlessness not by choiceArticle