Definition of childbearingnext
as in childbirth
the act or process of giving birth to children in olden days many women died in childbearing

Synonyms & Similar Words

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childbearing

2 of 2

adjective

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of childbearing
Noun
But Steinem lived to see the rise of a powerful backlash against her vision of feminism, with reproductive rights, motherhood, childbearing and gender roles once again at the center of the country's culture wars. — ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026 Not least because the hips—or rather, a wide pelvis—are considered a symbol of femininity, fertility, and childbearing capacity, both from a cultural-historical and an evolutionary-biology perspective. — Kelly Niesen, Glamour, 24 July 2026 In fact, for millennia the role of mothers has included not only childbearing and education but also protection over the community as a whole, especially through advocacy for peace. — Marie-Claire Beaulieu, The Conversation, 5 May 2026 Poor women’s childbearing, particularly among Black and immigrant populations, was increasingly portrayed as a driver of intergenerational poverty and social disorder. — Sonya Borrero, STAT, 1 May 2026 Though some countries have tried to slow or reverse the trend through pro-natal policies—including cash incentives and tax breaks for childbearing, affordable childcare, and longer parental leaves—their long-term success has not been definitively proved so far. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Apr. 2026 Around the eleventh century, in Anglo‑Saxon England, instructions for an elaborate childbearing and mothering ritual were recorded by monks in the Lacnunga, a collection of medical texts and curative prayers. — Literary Hub, 18 Mar. 2026 Cleghorn notes that many Minoan women died between the ages of twenty and twenty-five, indicating that childbearing was most likely the cause of death. — Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026 Women past childbearing years often see OB-GYNs less frequently. — Lauryn Higgins, Flow Space, 13 Jan. 2026
Adjective
Egg freezing, formally called oocyte preservation, is one of the clearest ways to extend a woman’s childbearing years. — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 11 Aug. 2026 In the United Kingdom, there is a midwife assigned to every childbearing individual, regardless of the risk status of the pregnancy. — Deanna Taylor, USA Today, 7 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for childbearing
Noun
  • Pregnant women in the city were given a lump sum of $1,500 at the start of their enrollment, typically in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, followed by $500 every month until one year after childbirth.
    — Ananya Rupanagunta, Vox, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Gladys’s pregnancy has moved into terrifying 1880s childbirth.
    — Alice Burton, Vulture, 2 Nov. 2026
Adjective
  • Morrobel, now 37, went on to beat the odds, recently celebrating seven years living with MBC and the upcoming birth of a baby boy with her husband via gestational carrier.
    — Petra Guglielmetti, Glamour, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Pregnancy and childbirth are costly processes, increasing cardiac output, hypercoagulability, abdominal obesity, and risk of gestational diabetes.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • Back in July, a federal appeals court resurrected more than 500 lawsuits that alleged prenatal Tylenol use contributed to autism or ADHD in children, citing improper exclusion of expert testimony.
    — Natasha Abellard, CNBC, 2 Nov. 2026
  • The study is part of an ongoing research project that explores how a form of brief interpersonal psychotherapy called MOMCare, which is specially tailored to treating prenatal depression, affects pregnant women with depression and their babies.
    — Catherine Demers, The Conversation, 16 Oct. 2026
Adjective
  • The couple share three children and Jen is pregnant with their fourth.
    — Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026
  • The picture takes its cue from the daughter of a Croatian businessman and her Serbian boyfriend, the son of a high-ranking politician, who fall pregnant and decide to get married to the horror of their nationalist parents.
    — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Childbearing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/childbearing. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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