By Melanie Linn Gutowski

For all of our aunties that are married without children by choice, you aren't alone! The number of women identifying themselves as "voluntarily childless" is growing, the Today Show reported.

The report, titled "Childless by Choice: Why Couples Decide Not to Have Kids," cited two couples who, though married, do not have children. 

The couples in the report spoke of a dearth of maternal and paternal instincts that led them to use measures such as vasectomy in order to avoid having kids.

According to the National Survey of Family Growth, released by the Centers for Disease Control in 2005, 61.6 million American women were of childbearing age (15 to 44) in 2002.  Approximately 6.2 percent of those women described themselves as "voluntarily childless", meaning they were fertile but had decided not to have children.  This was a significant increase over numbers reported in 1990, in which 4.3 percent of women were voluntarily childless.

This choice, described by the Today Show's report as potentially "socially isolating" led one of the couples to co-found a local chapter of "No Kidding!", a social group for childfree adults.

Such groups exist throughout the United States and Europe, including "Kidding Aside" in Great Britain.

While the report did not focus on the presence of other people's children in the lives of the couples interviewed, here at Savvy Auntie we are well aware that many childfree women and couples have chosen to be a presence in the lives of children.  Whether they are childless by chance or by choice, they willingly and lovingly spend time with other people's children, including nieces, nephews, godchildren and friends.

What do you think of the Today Show's report, Savvy Aunties?

Melanie Linn Gutowski is a freelance writer and a proud Godmother.