From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishchildbearingchild‧bear‧ing /ˈtʃaɪldˌbeərɪŋ $ -ˌber-/ noun [uncountable] 1 MBBABY/HAVE A BABYthe process of being pregnant and giving birth to children the trend towards later marriage and childbearing2 → childbearing age/years
Examples from the Corpus
childbearing• It is clear that housing tenure is associated with major differentials in patterns of marriage and childbearing.• For most women, working and childbearing are alternatives, at least for a few years.• This should, if anything, strengthen the family and encourage childbearing.• Much childbearing had not impaired her beauty.• And these would in turn improve the circumstances of childbearing and child rearing.• Other research has also confirmed that women risk serious health hazards by repeated childbearing.• The shape of families is determined by parents' decisions to start, space, and stop their childbearing. 