I interviewed moms with 5 or more kids − here’s what I learned about the women who are quietly going against the grain

The U.S. fertility rate is the lowest it’s been since the government started tracking it in the 1930s. Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/Picture Alliance via Getty Images by Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, Catholic University of America 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. The fertility gap 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...