Can single moms do it all?

More babies than ever are being born to unwed mothers, according to the latest numbers from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

A historic 40 percent of the 4.3 million births this year were to single moms, with most of those moms older than 20 years old. Unmarried childbearing has increased 26 percent since 2002, when the recent steep increases began.

Some experts say a changing attitude about being an unwed mother is behind the trend. You can’t help but look at magazines, TV and movies and not see the life of a single mom glorified into a trendy, fast-paced lifestyle where a baby is no more than a convenient accessory.

When my husband and I met with an adoption agency earlier this year, the counselor told us this glamorization of single parenthood is also affecting the number of children up for adoption. More moms are keeping babies they once might have given up for adoption because being a single mom is trendy and women think they can handle it.

I’m not a single mom, so I have no idea what these women must face trying to be everything to everyone all of the time. It must be exhausting — physically and emotionally.

I know many of these single moms didn’t choose that lifestyle, but I find it alarming that more women are voluntarily opting for single parenthood.

What do you think — can single moms raise a child just as well as in a two-parent household? Or are there things these kids are missing that a single mom simply can’t give?