This study investigated the existence of a marriage ritual and the planning of a first-child. Forty-seven couples, who were expecting their first child were interviewed jointly in the last trimester of pregnancy. The results, obtained from content analysis, showed that most couples (53%) reported that they had had a marriage ritual and that they had planned the first pregnancy, while 25% of the couples did not report any of the two situations. Therefore a statistically significant association was found between the presence of a marriage ritual and the first-child planning. The results gave support to the initial expectation that the way the transition to marriage takes place, has an important role in the first-child planning. Marriage rituals clearly demarcate the beginning of a new family, the transition to adulthood and the potential transition to parenthood.
Marriage ritual; first-child planning; family life cycle
