Latest news with #childbearing
Wall Street Journal
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Irony on the Editorial Pages
I found it ironic that Leonard Lopoo's April 30 op-ed 'How to Make American Babies Again' was next to Starlee Coleman's 'High Court Could Crush Charter Schools,' which described at least one part of our fertility crisis: that our public-school system is a failure, as parents have to pay thousands of dollars to give a child a reasonable and safe education. To further turn the knife, two days later in his op-ed 'You Won't Believe the Tax Breaks for Professors,' Prof. Steven Davidoff Solomon described the education assistance that elite faculty enjoy. If ever we've constructed a disincentive for childbearing, our education system is it. Rebecca Whitworth
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
6 Things Moms Want President Trump To Do To Make Child Care More Affordable
The Trump administration has been vocal about wanting couples to have more children. On Jan. 24, at the annual anti-abortion rally and march March for Life, JD Vance proclaimed, 'I want more babies in the United States of America.' President Donald Trump, pointing to the birth decline in the U.S, has said he wants to be the 'fertilization president.' Find Out: Read Next: Though men across the U.S. are raising kids, sometimes as single parents or with male partners, the act of childbearing falls exclusively on those with reproductive organs, and though not always, those people are predominantly cis women. And it's these women that the Trump administration, which has implemented executive orders to roll back the rights of transgender people, seems to be primarily addressing when they express their wishes for more American children. We know this because they're trying to find ways to incentivize women to have kids. One potential incentive Trump is mulling over is a $5,000 cash bonus to first-time mothers. It's money that would possibly make a difference to a lot of prospective mothers. Many U.S. moms — including those with health insurance — accrue medical debt from giving birth alone. Then there's the fact that the projected annual cost to raise a child born in 2025 is $29,419, according to a recent study by LendingTree — an increase of 25.3% since Lending Tree's 2024 study and up 35.7% since its 2023 study. This all leads us to ask what do mothers really want to see Trump do, not only to maybe incentivize other women to become mothers, but to help those already in the role of Mom to struggle less financially? Making child care more affordable is critical. Here's what they're hoping for — and they're not unrealistic measures. Liang Zhao, CEO at Vansary and a working mom to a 3 1/2-year-old daughter, returned to work days after giving birth because, as a sole proprietor at the time, paid leave wasn't an option. 'I know firsthand how the lack of affordable child care creates barriers for mothers and for economic growth,' Zhao told GOBankingRates. Zhao wants to see the Trump administration expand tax credits to support not nontraditional care models. 'A number of families rely on patchwork solutions these days — from nanny shares, part-time caregivers or child care at the gym even,' Zhao said. 'A more inclusive and increased amount for child and dependent care tax credit that covers expanded models would bring more relief without forcing parents into cookie cutter options.' Learn More: Currently, the U.S. does not have enough child care centers to accommodate demand. If the Trump administration wants to see more kids, it must provide more care centers for them to thrive. This means investing in child care center infrastructure. 'Just as roads, buildings, bridges and internet access create the infrastructure for a city to support communities, so does reliable child care,' Zhao said. 'Policies that support cities and communities in building care centers and job growth in this area would be a step in providing the support mothers/ parents need.' Some employers provide on-site child care, but these are few and far between. Incentivizing employers to provide on-site child care to its employees with children would be a tremendous step forward. 'A number of other countries subsidize companies to build on-site care centers, which boosts workplace participation, particularly amongst women,' Zhao said. 'A side effect of this type of policy could foster a culture where working parents are destigmatized.' On a related note, the Trump administration could also accommodate mothers by incentivizing companies to make remote work a standardized option. 'The truth is that, while most moms still want to pursue their careers, they are also not willing to completely give up their active roles as caregivers,' said Aaron Razon, personal finance expert at Coupon Snake. 'They want to have enough flexibility at work to allow them to be present at school events, doctor appointments, and other important milestones in their children's lives, without having to choose between their jobs and their families, and flexible work arrangements can help mothers achieve this harmonious balance.' Many couples opt to have one parent stay at home/not work while the other brings in a steady income. Stay-at-home parents need support, too. 'Moms want to see President Trump provide resources for stay-at-home parents and caregivers, like mental health support, parenting classes and respite care, because the truth is that staying home to care for children, though quite rewarding, can take a physical and emotional toll on parents and caregivers, affecting not only their mental health and relationships but also their overall quality of life,' Razon said. 'By providing resources to stay-at-home parents and caregivers, President Trump would be helping to alleviate the challenges they face, and making it easier for them to care for their loved ones and themselves more effectively.' Last but not least (if not most important) moms want to see federally sponsored parental leave policy. 'Parents in the U.S. need paid leave!' Zhao said. And this goes for self-employed/freelancing parents, too. More From GOBankingRates 6 Used Luxury SUVs That Are a Good Investment for Retirees How Far $750K Plus Social Security Goes in Retirement in Every US Region 7 Overpriced Grocery Items Frugal People Should Quit Buying in 2025 12 SUVs With the Most Reliable Engines Sources Liang Zhao, Vansary Aaron Razon, CouponSnake This article originally appeared on 6 Things Moms Want President Trump To Do To Make Child Care More Affordable Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Perspective: Motherhood is the greatest power in the world
On a recent hunt for the right Mother's Day card, one of us rifled through dozens that lined the store shelf. The words were sweet, even beautiful, sometimes inspiring. But something became strikingly apparent. No card could ever adequately capture the meaning and experience of motherhood. From the moment of conception, the blood and bones of a mother's body will build the blood, bones, heart, brain, and body of another life. When that soul emerges from her womb, he or she will look for her, knowing her smell, her voice, her heartbeat. That mother will carry the cells of that infant in her body for, perhaps, the rest of her life, the living witness of a connection she cannot deny – as if part of her own heart is walking around outside of her. But her motherhood involves far more than giving birth. This offspring will not independently trot off in a few hours, like other mammals. For nearly two decades, she will help this unbelievably dependent human being to survive, develop, and become. This is no light thing. It's no wonder it is hard to figure out how to talk about. It is, unquestioningly, the greatest power in the world – to create and enable another life. And it is also unquestioningly, an unparalleled commitment to sacrifice and devote one's self to another. That may be part of why we are experiencing a crisis in childbearing – with the U.S. at an all-time low fertility rate. In many ways, given the current culture, it is understandable. The choice to have children has become almost agonizing. Economic concerns, housing costs, increasing pressures on parents to do more and more to ensure children will be successful, and the sense of doing it all alone in our less tight-knit communities all play a role in the fertility crisis. But more than any of this, there is a fear that having children will be a transition of loss – loss of freedom, loss of identity, loss of economic independence, loss of career opportunities. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic was first to coin the term 'workism' – a description of the importance Americans place on work as a fundamental source of meaning and identity – rather than only something you do to provide. In the current culture, making the decision to have children can feel to women, in particular, like deciding to give up your identity, your development, your capacity. I (Emily) spent my twenties pursuing graduate education and building an exciting career. Those years were full of rewarding work, travel, great food, and incredible people. The idea of having kids felt daunting to me. The surrounding culture echoed that sentiment: 'You're young, you have time.' Success was measured in career milestones, not in family relationships. The people celebrated on magazine covers or headlining keynote events weren't lauded for being great mothers or fathers, but for their professional achievements. That message doesn't go unnoticed—especially by young women. Still, my father's words of caution stayed with me. He had grown up in the railroad towns of Northern California, confident he didn't want to get married or have kids. But he changed course, married in his late thirties, and had me. Later in life, he confessed that his greatest regret was not starting a family earlier and having more children. That stuck with me—if someone so sure he didn't want kids could grow to regret that decision, maybe I should learn from his experience. At 33, my husband and I had our first child. The newborn phase was hard — grueling, really. The stress, the sleeplessness, the feeding issues — it was overwhelming. Any casual observer — or even a skilled academic — might have assumed I was miserable. In those moments, I didn't have the freedom to go out to dinner, binge my favorite show, hit the gym, spend time with friends, or work late on an interesting project. And yet, for the first time in my life, I felt something I had never experienced so powerfully: meaning. It was the great paradox. I had given up things. I had lost some things. And yet, somehow in the midst of the 'giving up,' I had found a level of connection, purpose, and meaning I had never known. It filled me. I realize now my story is far from unique. Recently, the Wheatley Institute and Institute for Family Studies surveyed 3,000 women across the United States, hoping to get a better picture of what is going on with women – and mothers, in particular. Given the current cultural narrative, one would never expect what emerged – though it is consistent with other findings. Yes, mothers of children at home reported being more overwhelmed and exhausted at the end of the day than women without children. They were also more likely to say they wished they had more time for themselves, and to report that they often sacrificed their own needs and desires to benefit someone else. Yet in the middle of the exhaustion and sacrifice, married mothers with children were nearly twice as likely than other women to say they were 'very happy.' They were also significantly more likely to say that life was enjoyable most or all of the time. A forthcoming report will dive more deeply into the reasons, but a brief look at why showed that mothers with children are much more likely to say that what they are doing is valuable and worthwhile, and that their lives have a clear sense of meaning and purpose. Importantly, marriage shapes and magnifies the experience of motherhood. Unmarried mothers with children in the study still identified more purpose and meaning than childless women, but they were less happy, more stressed, and lonely than married women. Marriage seems to lift the burdens of motherhood, while strengthening the experience of happiness, purpose and meaning in nurturing life. These findings should not surprise us. If there is anything our culture of isolation, diminished mental health and loneliness has taught us, it is that we are designed for deep connection. I (Jenet) recently sat beside a new mother as her infant, just 6 weeks old, was still struggling to breast and bottle feed. His utter dependence struck me. In the midst of this baby's discomfort, he opened his eyes and gazed directly into his mother's face, locking his eyes on hers. It was clear that he recognized her. She was his entire world. For a second, his mouth broke into a smile and I watched her exhaustion give way to radiance. How could any of us measure what it means to the expansion of our own purpose, meaning and identity, to bring another life into being and to be another's entire world? How could we measure the privilege of knowing and witnessing so intimately the soul of another, and making possible their existence and thriving? In doing so, we enter eternity, becoming part of the past and the future forever. It's no wonder marriage and motherhood are powerful catalysts of happiness and purpose. That's not a message we often hear, but it is real. Mother's Day gives us the opportunity to honor and express gratitude to the women who gave us life and nurtured our development. But it also gives us the opportunity to honor the privilege of experiencing the greatest power on earth — creation, nurturing, and growth — for those we love, and in ourselves.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I interviewed moms with 5 or more kids − here's what I learned about the women who are quietly going against the grain
Commentators link America's declining birth rate to a number of factors: a lack of support for mothers in the workplace, expensive child care, delayed marriage and a rising cost of living. But what about women in the U.S. who, despite these obstacles, have bucked the trend and managed to have all the children they want? I count myself in that camp: I have eight kids of my own. But I wanted to learn how other American women were able to reach their childbearing goals. So beginning in 2019, I decided to talk to some of the 5% of U.S. women who have five or more kids. My recent book, 'Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth,' is an account of what I learned. In April 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that counts annual births in America, released its provisional estimate of the total babies born in 2023. At 1.62 expected children per woman – down from 3.8 in 1957 – the fertility rate is the lowest it's been since the government started tracking it in the 1930s. Americans simply aren't having enough children to replace themselves. Studies have shown how, without enough immigration to offset the loss, this will cause the population to shrink, which in turn can lead to economic stagnation, political instability and social fragmentation. But falling birth rates go along with one more troubling pattern: the so-called 'fertility-gap.' The gap refers to the fact that women widely report having fewer children than they intended to have when they were younger. In the U.S., women say that about 2.5 kids is ideal, and that they realistically plan to have around 2.0 kids. They end up having 1.62, leaving a gap of about 0.4 to 0.9 kids. This discrepancy exists mainly because women are getting married later than ever in history – near the age of 28 for the average American woman – which has moved back the median age of having their first child to 30. Despite the rosy rhetoric of influencers boosting child-free lives, this fertility gap can be a big deal – particularly for women. Having children usually matters more to women's happiness than to men's, and women are generally more bothered by childlessness. So, low birth rates aren't just a crisis for societies and economies. They tell a deeply personal story about women failing to reach their goals for motherhood. Motivated by these circumstances, I interviewed 55 women with five or more children who lived in all parts of the U.S., from the Pacific Northwest to the Carolinas to New England. Their homes were in a range of socioeconomic areas, including wealthy, middle class and low-income ZIP codes. Some of them worked full time, others were part-time employees, and some didn't work at all. Their husbands held blue-collar jobs, white-collar jobs and everything in between. What they had in common was religious faith – they belonged to Jewish, Catholic, Latter-day Saint, evangelical and mainline Protestant communities. They also tended to value having a big family above other things they could do with their time, talents and money. One woman I spoke to, a mother of five named Leah, has no regrets about having a large family. (The names used in my book are pseudonyms in accordance with best practices and federal regulations for the protection of human subjects in academic research.) 'I think our culture really values the sort of very rigid perception of success, and has started to devalue a mother's contribution to society,' she told me. 'It's almost, like, radical and feminist to say that my contribution is healthy, well-balanced children. Coming from a divorced family, that was a big motivation for me in choosing this life: the family unit being the priority above career and personal identity.' The women bucking the trend weren't necessarily wealthier and didn't seem to face lower childbearing costs. Rather, they believed that children were blessings from God and the main purpose of their marriages. As Leah told me: 'Every child brings a divine gift into the world that nobody else can bring.' Most of them ended up having more children because they valued having a big family so highly. They didn't plan their family sizes around other life goals – they planned other life goals around having children. And the very high accord they granted to childbearing ordered their priorities in ways that made it more likely for them to get married and have kids, even while meeting career and financial milestones. Prior to my study, it was known that women who have more children than average are more likely to go to church. Less understood was why. Most churches today do not prohibit the use of contraception in marriage. None of the women in my sample reported having a large family because they believed family planning was wrong. The economic theories of 1986 Nobel laureate James Buchanan helped me see the women I interviewed as rational actors like all other women – not as blind adherents to religious dogma. According to Buchanan, people size up the gains and losses to the choices they make. Anything that adds value to one course of action tips the scale in favor of that choice. Incentives don't have to be monetary. They can come from ideas and convictions, including religious values. Conversely, anything that detracts value from a course of action makes it less likely. Disincentives can be monetary, like the price of a good. But the cost of missing out on other things can factor even more heavily. Whether the women I interviewed were rich or poor, they often cited the costs of missing out when they chose to have an additional child. They gave up or put aside hobbies, professions, alone time and financial status – not to mention eight hours of sleep each night – when they decided to have more kids. They didn't report not valuing those things. They felt the sting of being misunderstood, overwhelmed and limited in their work options. What stood out in the interviews was how much worth they accorded to having another child. They got to higher numbers of kids because they had something on the other side of the scale that weighed more than the losses. A mom named Esther summed it up: 'The three big blessings that we talk about in Judaism are children, good health and financial sustenance. I don't feel like you could ever have too much of any of those things. These are blessings. They're God's expression of goodness.' Drawing on these insights, my interviews suggested how mothers in my sample managed to defy the country's declining birth rate and fertility gap. First, because having a big family mattered so much to them, they pursued marriage deliberately. They chose colleges, churches and social settings where others prioritized marriage, increasing the chances of finding a partner in time to have kids. Second, they sought partners who also wanted high numbers of kids. One mom, a devout Catholic, told us she fell in love with a Protestant guy in college who wanted a big family. She had known what she wanted from her life partner. Finally, the women overcoming the fertility gap adjusted their careers to fit their childbearing goals. They didn't try to squeeze their kids around professional milestones. As such, they tended to select careers that were more flexible, such as teaching, nursing, graphic design or running a small business out of the home. Though not all Americans share the religious convictions that tipped the scales for the women in my study, lessons from understanding their motivations may have tremendous value for the millions of young Americans aspiring to be mothers. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Catholic University of America Read more: More than 1 in 5 US adults don't want children Taxing bachelors and proposing marriage lotteries – how superpowers addressed declining birthrates in the past Fatherhood changes men's brains, according to before-and-after MRI scans Catherine Ruth Pakaluk received funding from the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University (2019, 2020), the APGAR Foundation (2022), and the Ortner Family Foundation (2022) to undertake the research for and preparation of the book mentioned in this article.
