Where I'm at you can do it all at once. The divorce and the child support. If your asking do you have to make him pay it. It's usually automatically figured during the divorce. Should you I would say yes and here are a few reasons why.

1) something could happen to your financial situation and you need the help.

2) they will also set up visitation during that time so you can work out all the kinks in that.

3) even if you don't want it it can sit in the account and build and it can be given to your child to help with college or a car when he's old enough.

4) things can get ugly at anytime during or after your officially divorced. It never hurts to be prepared.

5) it's easier to get it done now then after its all finished.

Ok I'm not telling you what to do but I've been threw a divorce that took over two years in which time he had two more children during our divorce process. With one of them trying for support at the same time as I was. Made things more difficult. It took this long and we had no property or money that needed to be split I wanted nothing he had.

I hope it goes smoothly for you so that you can move on and be happy. Its a freeing feeling and you deserve it. Hope this helps

Child support