Relationship Pathways and First Birth in Australia

This chapter examines how relationship pathways to the first birth changed in Australia over a 40-year period using data from the Negotiating the Life Course project. During this period, 1975 to 2005, the age at first birth rose substantially and a higher proportion of women did not have a first birth. It is a period in which divorce rates rose and cohabitation before marriage became commonplace. We observe that the preferred normative sequence shifted from single-married-birth to single-cohabitation-marriage-birth. However, for many and increasingly across time, the first cohabitation ended and the individual concerned sought a new relationship. This led to much greater diversity in relationship pathways. The more that people had multiple relationships, the less likely it was that they had had a child before the age of 35. While it may be the case that some people set out to have multiple relationships and not to have a child, it is much more likely that this pathway was unintended. Throughout the analysis period, having a first child by age 35 was highly associated with marriage, albeit in the latter part of the period, marriage preceded by cohabitation.