The traditional model of a family makes it obligatory for a woman to give birth to children and to take care of them. Over the years, the role and the position of a woman has changed and the maternity has become one of the options among other values of social life. That is why the aim of this work was to check whether, and at what age, contemporary women decide to be mothers and what this is conditioned by.

The research was conducted among 275 women in the procreation age. The participation was voluntary and anonymous and the respondents were selected randomly.

The analysis of the collected data showed that the majority (61.5%) of women taking part in the research had not given birth yet and they were up to 29 years of age. The remaining (38.5%) had already been mothers, at the age of 30 or over, the average age of having the first child was 23 years of age. The research has shown that contemporary women take longer to decide to have their first child. Therefore the relationship between giving birth and the place of living, job activity and subjective evaluation of the material status was sought.

The collected data suggest that there is a necessity to provide children with health education as regards parenthood. It should cover both the biological and the psycho-sociological aspects and aim at showing the value of maternity as the highest value of life.