Do you feel like you have to decide between starting a family and having a successful career? You're not alone. A recent study of 3,000 college-educated women between the ages of 33 and 45 has found that nearly half are childless, many because they want to delay childbirth until they're established professionally - or forego motherhood entirely in favor of a lucrative and fulfilling professional life.

But are all childless women pining away for motherhood? Hardly.

One British woman who is childless by choice tells The Sunday Times: " I do need to feel that I am in control of my own life, definitely. Having children changes the entire dynamic. Once they arrive, everything starts revolving around somebody else. It's not selfish, it's more a case that I don't feel particularly maternal, so I don't feel I'm missing anything." But for the women who do want kids, waiting too long to get started can be heartbreaking.

According to The New York Times, one 44-year-old documentary filmmaker writes that struggling to get pregnant in her later years is frustrating: " I put off having children for many years so that I could pursue my career goals. Now that I am ready to have children ... my body isn't cooperating. I am struggling with infertility and have had multiple miscarriages. My childbearing years have come to a close, I am afraid." Here's to hoping that one day soon we won't have to decide between our careers and our families - we can have it all at once.