The poor becomes poorer

SIR: Child bearing is a joy most couples cherish. It is tormenting to witness when families are denied of this blessing. Beauty of love carries us away that most of the time we discover that we are expecting a child when we think that we are still in honeymoon. We quickly brace up and open our mind to welcome the responsibility of parenthood. The adaptation shows a sign of maturity. The poor, in many cases, seem to neglect this realization.

There is nothing wrong with couples having as many children as they can emotionally and financially support. The issue is when they mindlessly give birth to children as if it takes air to raise them. This behavior often have root in culture and religion. To a bizarre extension, the folly of social pressure; couples having babies because they could and that making them feel that they are better than others. By the way, one cannot dismiss misfortune leaving families with more children than they can support regrettably.

One frequently comes across a poor couple who has five or six children and the wife is pregnant. The apparent difficulty they have raising the children makes one wonder why they should be looking for another. Perhaps, it is out of ignorance. Mostly, the woman will eagerly beg the sympathy of society to share in her predicament. She has only given birth to girls and she wants to have a boy or two. Her dilemma is that her husband could abandon her for another woman seeking a son. She feels that she can only be stable in her marriage when she gives her husband a son who will replace him when he passes on.

One positive side of a poor large family is that one or two children occasionally manage to find a way to be successful. The wretchedness the family is subjected to do not still justify this chance. We live in the modern times where planning of limited resources is required to make living pleasurable. Sheer will to raise too many children breaks the ability of poor parents to lift above poverty instead, they descend lower. Prudence is needed to bypass unnecessary hardship. Life is not easy as it seems.

• Pius Okaneme, Umuoji, Anambra State.