Byline: ELINOR J. BRECHER Knight-Ridder
At nearly 50, ``Nancy'' has a life many women might envy. In fact, a good number of her friends and associates do.
She owns a growing business in a prestigious district of Miami. She tools around town in a jaunty European convertible and takes exotic foreign vacations. One-of-a-kind art decorates her South Miami town home.
But when she goes to the supermarket, something fills her with regret.
``I'm jealous about the babies in grocery carts I `never' think I'm not missing anything,'' says Nancy, who is divorced, and had an abortion in her 20s. Like several others in this story, she asked that her real name not be used.
Before the 1970s, if women remained childless, it had less to do with choice than with biology or circumstance. It was often assumed that they ``couldn't'' have kids.
In the '90s, American women are electing to postpone or forgo childbearing in record numbers. They're amassing an unprecedented level of personal wealth (in 1990, women reported an average personal income of $12,200, up 30 percent from 1980), and enjoying a range of lifestyles their mothers never dreamed possible.
Yet even some who thought they'd closed the case on motherhood wonder whether some day when it's a biologically moot issue they'll conclude theymade a terrible mistake.
Some, like Nancy, find themselves mocked by a maternal feeling that has overridden every one of the socioeconomic defenses so …
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