Book Review
Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth
by Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk (Ph.D.)
Regnery Publishing, 384 pages, $49 CDN
The author, Dr. Catherine Pakaluk, is an economist who thought that the falling birth rates around the world, which threaten social supports such as pensions and health care, could be clarified by studying the women who have given birth to a large number of children (five or more). She wondered what characterized the five per cent of U.S. women (ages 40-45) who had five or more children in a two-child culture. Could a study of high birth rate families provide an answer to the negative social, economic and cultural fallout resulting from policies which discourage fertility?
Her study consisted of interviews with 55 college educated mothers of five or more children, from a variety of ethnic and religious groups across the USA.
One chapter provides us with an overview of failed overpopulation predictions, successful depopulation campaigns, and the subsequent demographic collapse which appears unstoppable. The focus is on the main depopulation influencers and their mistaken ideas – Thomas Malthus, Charles Darwin, John Maynard Keynes, and Paul Ehrlich, who all issued dire warnings about the world’s overpopulation.
Relevant Statistics are Provided
An OECD global economic report (The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is a unique forum where the governments of 37 democracies with market-based economies collaborate to develop policy standards to promote sustainable economic growth) published in December 2016, stated that “in all countries the number of children women intend to have was far above the actual number they already have….” Dr. Pakaluk contends that “A birth rate closer to women’s desired family size would solve the most pressing problems of the modern state.”
According to U.S. studies, birthrate and marriage have previously correlated to voting patterns in that high fertility parents generally voted Republican, low fertility citizens voted Democrat. This changed in the 2024 U.S. election when families with low birth rates also tended to vote more Republican than Democrat.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 1976, 20% of American families had five or more children. By 1990 this had decreased to 5%, remaining constant since then. The question then is, why did this 5% of women choose to have larger families?
The book focuses on the United States and global trends, but for context, Canada’s last Census reported that in 2021, of “couple families” with children (Statistics Canada does not differentiate between married and common law), 40% of women had one child, 41% had two children, and 19% had three or more. According to a Statistics Canada analyst, their website “doesn’t allow statistics on couples with five children or more. The limit on the website is three children or more.”
Every Mother’s Story is Different
The mothers in the study all had different stories to tell. Some mothers came from large families, whereas some came from small families. Some always wanted many children; others had wanted neither marriage nor children. Some felt the sting of our culture’s devaluation of motherhood, while others took it in stride. There were struggles with health, miscarriages, financial sacrifices, career stoppages. All mothers significantly noted that openness to a new child brought great benefits to marriage and family. Twenty percent of subjects interviewed related how a new baby brought healing to a family member having a difficult time mentally. Teens benefited from being exposed to babies and carried this into adulthood. In addition, there were more opportunities to develop conflict and resolution skills that were helpful in other spheres of life.
Dr. Pakaluk views the social phenomenon of declining birthrates through the eyes of an economist. What are the economic consequences of mothers entering the workforce, the pill, the effects of compulsory schooling rather than home-centered education, old age security replacing the support provided by one’s children? Also, these issues have been found to suppress the economic value of the child to the household and to the nation.
For the most part, however, as with smaller families, the joys children brought to marriage and family were transformative. Children were valued much more than the losses in other areas such as “sleep, comfort, and income, but also career, lifestyle, status and identity.” The stories were of “Women fitting their lives around childbearing rather than fitting childbearing around everything else.” Motherhood became “who you are” and was far more fulfilling for these mothers than exclusive employment in the workplace.
The “lies” they had been told about motherhood as part of the feminist narrative in schools had not taken root in these women, and in many instances, the feminists’ misinformation was resented. As one mother observed, recognizing that having a large family may not be for everyone, “it is for a lot more people than they think.”
The Religious Component
All but one mother interviewed attached religious significance to childbearing. Belief that new life had an eternal dimension, faith that God would provide, and other spiritual understandings were essential in their choice to accept another child as a gift and a blessing.
The author questions the presumption that incentives such as cash and material benefits will rectify declining fertility. Rather, she believes the key is women seeing children as more goodness for the family and the nation, a reality she wishes were more widely known and understood in society.
She concludes that “the secret to solving the puzzle of low birth rates, and reversing it, lies in the stories of those who are noticeably immune from the dominant trend.” (set in today’s society by feminist DEI). The stories show great wisdom and courage and also apply to smaller families as the needs of the little ones are met. The mothers demonstrate the age-old paradox that “by giving of yourself, you find who you are,” and “motherhood becomes more who you are than what you do.”
The book contains many insightful observations. By putting others before yourself, some noticed that fathers and mothers were transformed to a marked degree as they faced the challenges of a large family.
The author claims that “the relentless secularization of research by universities has produced massive blind spots for inquiry into fertility.” In contrast, Hannah’s Children presents us with a study that does not overlook the spiritual dimension and biblical references as well as the practical implications of raising children. The author states that “Nations that crowd out the sacred functions of Church and family will continue to reap a sterile harvest of disappointment”, and that religious liberty is also very much a family policy.