Women in bars to get pregnancy pep talks

Israeli women will soon be able to learn about the vagaries of their reproductive systems while knocking back tequila shots, as experts descend on Tel Aviv bars for a series of lectures on fertility and child-bearing.

The talks are part of the Israel Fertility Association’s new campaign to educate women on the subject of pregnancy. According to a report in Maariv on Tuesday, with Israelis opting to marry at later ages and more and more Israeli women choosing to remain single, the association has decided to seek out females in their late 20s and early 30s and educate them about the potential dangers of postponing childbirth till relatively late in life.

In the series of seven-minute lectures, experts will also discuss behavior that can detrimentally affect fertility, and options that are available to older women who wish to bear children.

According to Dr. Ronit Haimov-Kochman, the unusual choice of venue was due to a difficulty in reaching the 25-35 demographic.

“It’s hard, for example, to speak with them at their office,” she said, “because it’s against the employer’s interests for them to get pregnant.”

Haimov-Kochman mentioned factors other than age that could harm fertility, such as nutrition and smoking. “The chances of miscarriage go up after age 35,” she sad. “The thing is, in the last few years the marriage age has gone up and with it the childbearing age, and many women simply aren’t aware of the dangers.”