London, April 26 (IANS) This may sound strange but many couples agree not to have children after only one discussion, and sometimes none at all!

According to researchers from Middlesex University, 40 percent of the childless women they surveyed had either not talked about having children, or had only discussed this once early in their relationship.

“Not having children is obviously a very important decision, and what was interesting from the research was the negligible amount of discussion that couples engaged in – many are agreeing not to have children in one conversation, or in an unspoken way,” said lead researcher Edina Kurdi from Middlesex University.

Kurdi carried an online survey which included responses from 75 British women aged 35 and above who were childless. She interviewed nine of them face-to-face.

The survey asked about discussions the woman had with her current partner about not having children.

She found that 23 of the 63 who responded to the question had decided not to have children after one conversation.

Three others mentioned they had not talked about the issue at all.

“One possible reason that couples did not need to talk about the issue much is that they could accurately sense their partner did not want children from their beliefs and lifestyle,” Kurdi noted.

Very little attention has been paid to the negotiations within romantic relations about not having a family, even though developed countries are facing a general decline in fertility combined with an accelerated rate of childlessness, the researchers added.