Are You Ready for another baby?

Family planning is relatively new. Babies used to come when they wanted. Parents today have the luxury of planning their families, but how can couples decide on a perfect family size? And what about spacing between kids?

There are several factors to weigh when you're trying to decide whether or not to have another baby," IndianMomsAndBabies.com offers the following tips for deciding if you're ready for another child.

• How stable is your relationship? Having a baby won't "fix" a broken relationship.
• How steady is your job? Consider postponing another child if you or your partner will be unemployed in the near future.
• How healthy are you? For example, diabetics will want to time pregnancy so that blood sugar remains in control. Significantly overweight or underweight women may want to target a healthy weight before attempting pregnancy.
• Do you have the patience and energy required to care for another child, especially a baby with a fussy temperament or medical challenges? Not all pregnancies end in picture-perfect happy endings.

We also recommend taking folic acid and kicking bad habits, like smoking, drinking or taking medications without asking your doctor, before trying to conceive.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Couples with stable marriages, health and finances are ideally ready to consider pregnancy. But how far apart should baby number two, three or more be? Couples need to be realistic about how much time and effort each partner is prepared to put into parenting. If one partner tends to have a 'hands off' attitude towards childrearing and/or puts in a lot of hours at the office, the other partner needs to assume they'll be doing the lion's share of the baby care – in that case they may want to postpone the birth of a second child until the other child is more independent, 3 years of age or older.

Different Opinions

Sometimes couples differ on their ideal number of children. This is a very difficult situation. The more strongly couples disagree on this point, the more likely it is that they'll need to work with a therapist to resolve the issue.

Deciding to have another child or not will impact the rest of your life. Discuss options with your spouse to determine the family size that fits best with your expectations and lifestyle.