Children born in the 1950s and 1960s were called the baby boom generation. Many women became pregnant soon after marriage, and those who became pregnant before marriage were expected to marry the other parent. Families were large, as most families had an average family size of four or five children. While children were expected and often an exciting part of marriage, the sexual component of a healthy marriage often worried young wives. Without a reliable form of birth control, women faced three decades of childbearing before menopause. At the end of the 1950s the pill was launched on the market. This was a huge step forward for women, as couples could now decide when they wanted to start their family. For many women, pregnancy was not a welcome gift, it was an emotional blow that caused stress to their marriage and personal well-being. Specialized healthcare was not available for women, as family doctors were the primary physician. Abortion was very difficult to find, as abortion is illegal. Occasionally women could find a sympathetic doctor to perform one. They were often called therapeutic abortions or were performed because doctors decided that women would die during