MARIAN Pallister has clearly gone to considerable efforts to seek the views of a wide range of people on Scotland's falling birth-rate (July 19).

TV producers, lecturers, social workers, and even ministers of the Church of Scotland have been canvassed for their opinions on the matter. The only explanations which have not been taken into account, it seems, are those of the very women about whom the article is written.

This should not come as a surprise. As the Rev Bill Wallace amply demonstrates in your article, there is still a willingness to label women who prefer not to have children as self-centred, with the result that being open about our feelings and choices can attract disapproval and sometimes hostility.

I am currently conducting a research project at Edinburgh University, which aims to understand what is now referred to as voluntary childlessness from the point of view of the women concerned.

I would invite other women who have come to the conclusion that having children is not for them, and who would be willing to take part in the study, to contact me. Anonymity will be guaranteed.

Perhaps The Herald too, could talk to childless women instead of just about them.

Annie Gunner,

37 Iona Street,

Edinburgh.