Dogs, Motherhood, and Reproductive Choices: A Qualitative Study of Women’s Decision-Making in a Pronatalist Country

This article examines how dog-owning women in Hungary make sense of childbearing in a strongly pronatalist context. Drawing on 28 semi-structured interviews with highly educated urban women aged 25–45 (childless or with one child) and using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we analyze how everyday dog care, emotional bonds, and constraints shape fertility intentions. Many participants described dogs as family members or “child zero,” and some as temporary substitutes within their reproductive trajectories. At the same time, women highlighted major barriers to having (more) children—financial insecurity, emotional overload, work–life conflict, and uncertainty about a reliable co-parent. Broader anxieties (e.g., climate change or war) intensified insecurity but rarely eliminated desires for motherhood. Overall, dog ownership did not replace motherhood; it offered a flexible, emotionally rewarding form of caregiving that can coexist with, and sometimes postpone, childbearing under uncertainty.