Birth rates are down, but maybe not why you think

American families are having fewer children these days. But for families where that’s not the case, a sense of meaning is behind their decision to have children.

Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, associate professor of social research and economic thought at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Author of “Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth.”

Excerpt from Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth. Not to be reprinted without permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.