Have you ever heard the children's rhyme that goes first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Mary with a baby carriage.

Well, statistically, that's pretty much the way things go.

About 95% of married couples do have children.

But now some people, particularly a group called NON, the National Organization for non-parents, are questioning the love marriage baby carriage syndrome.

NON believes that a lot of people end up pushing baby carriages not because they want children, but because society expects it of them.

So NON has two major goals to encourage married couples to think long, hard and realistically before they decide to have children and to eliminate the deep rooted cultural bias against couples who decide to remain permanently childless.

One of the projects we are considering is a newlywed mailing.

A lot of newlyweds go into marriage without really knowing what the responsibilities of becoming a parent may be.

Some other chapters have been successful with doing a mailing to newlyweds.

If nothing else, it makes them think about it.

Not necessarily to get them in the organization, but if they're interested, you know, that's a side benefit for us.

A young couple named Rick and Denise Dela have just founded a Pittsburgh chapter of NON.

The Dolas have been married for three years.

They both work full time.

They are childless by choice and plan to remain childless.

They call it child free permanently.

Do you hate children?

No, not at all.

I guess the thing you could say is just, we would like to see an alternative type of lifestyle where children aren't a predominant part of it.

I don't consider it necessarily hedonistic in a, in a selfish or and self-satisfied manner.

It's more a question of we are free to develop our potentials, not only in a way that would please ourselves, but also in a way that we can try to benefit the society.

By not having children.

We can lean more towards, you know, doing things for other people.

It's just a question of improving the quality of life.

If you have less people.

With the amount of technology we have now, you should be able to have a higher standard of living for everyone around the entire world.

I have a number of hobbies and interests that are quite time consuming, that I enjoy doing, such as playing the piano, which I spend a good deal of time doing, in which I want to further my education in.

My husband and I enjoy working together.

Also, I enjoy reading a lot.

I enjoy very much being around children at the right time, at the right place.

For example, I had wanted to teach elementary school and I enjoyed that very much because children are very enjoyable to work with.

However, when I have hobbies that I have to concentrate on, it's just not the right time for me.

Does either one of you feel good in not having children?

That you're denying something really basic to human nature?

This is the basic instinct that's kept the race going for for so many years.

No, not at all.

In fact, I think it's fairly commonly accepted now among most psychologists and biologists that there is no such thing as a maternal instinct in fact, a lot of times people we run into through correspondence and just face to face, it seems that it's more of a of a father's learned idea that that's the way that he shows his masculinity in society is to have children.

I think the idea of having children is very much a learned thing, and it's not denying anything basic.

In fact, if you want to look at it from a biological sense, the way the condition of the world is today, it could be very dysfunctional for the race as a whole to keep producing more children.

The people who belong to NON say that often a NON meeting is the only place where a decision not to have children can be discussed rationally without, as one member put it, raising tempers hackles and the devil himself.

Families of young couples are apparently the major source of pro childbearing pressure, and people come to the NON meetings in part to find reinforcement against that pressure.

The pressures from family, our own family, which is fairly strong, or our mothers and fathers want us to have children and it isn't strong enough that it bothers us that much, but I've seen other people actually have children, largely because their family wants them to, and often they regret afterwards that they've done that.

But it's kind of, I hope they like without have children.

Maybe not now.

And maybe a little older.

And they realize that they that Most families apparently do put pro baby pressure on young married couples.

Rick and Denise Delaval count themselves lucky.

Rick's parents don't agree with their decision, but at least they accept it For our long term to have children and that all of the whole, Im not expceting oh yeah, hopefully they change your mind and if they don't, they will.

That's entirely up to you.

I think each one has their own life to live naturally.

I'd like that if you could live long enough to see the offspring of my son and his wife.

But I figure it's their business what theyre going to do.

See, they would have to raise them not me.

The national organization for non-parents is controversial, there's no doubt about that.

But its membership is growing, and now it even has its own literature.

A few years ago, nobody was writing books with titles like The Baby Trap and The Myth of Mom and Apple Pie.

So NON's message is getting louder All the time.

In the proverbial nutshell, the message is this have children only because you really want them, not because society or your mother expects you to.

And if you don't want to have children, well, then don't.