Everyone likes to receive attention. If that attention is accompanied by praise for helping society, that attention is even more satisfying. Today, US society is pushing women into the workforce, suggesting society will only give them the attention they seek if they participate in the workforce. Motherhood is given short shrift, which encourages them to delay or skip pregnancy. Consequently, our Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is only 1.6, imperiling our future.

Half a century ago, Romania’s dictator showed that outlawing contraception and abortion could dramatically increase the TFR, but it also led to thousands of abandoned children. The US electorate has soundly rejected the adoption of such policies. Indeed, our medical advancements tend to be anti-natal, as US women have access to contraceptives, day-after pills, and abortion pills. So, whatever is done to increase motherhood has to be voluntary.

Crowd Encouragement: Our society is competitive and vaguely hostile – we are ready with criticism and sparse with praise. What if we changed society to become so child-centered that pregnant women, or mothers with children in tow, at least while in public, were regularly praised? This change should be dramatic enough that mothers or mothers-to-be could expect that their motherhood would result in fairly constant praise or positive attention for them and their kids in public. We must change from "I know that the urban way of looking at others is to ignore them almost all the time unless they are a threat," to "as a good citizen, I must watch out for pregnant women and mothers, and make an effort to praise them and their kids." If childless women saw this praise, would not at least some of them consider having a baby? AI suggests this effort might raise our TFR to 1.7, which would put us in a much better demographic place. Here’s how: When in public spaces, every citizen should try to help every mother they see (e.g., opening/holding doors, pausing transit so she can corral her little ones, etc.). During this interaction, citizen-influencers would tell her they appreciate her sacrifice in time and treasure to help our society, and/or that her children are cute/winsome, and/or that she is a good citizen/a real American, etc. – e.g., see a mother, then go out of your way to make known that you, personally, appreciate her and/or her kids.

Initial and on-going Church Involvement: Getting volunteers to do a great deal of "mother congratulating/thanking/praising," "mother helping," and "child admiring" should be possible if we can enlist attenders (and those in service groups as the Shriners, etc.) as influencers. We need Pastors to announce that they are concerned about the failing birthrate, go into some detail about how our society rewards the military with public praise, and how God’s greatest creation – humanity – is threatened with self-extinction. The Pastor should tell the congregation that it should, this very day, try to thank or praise mothers, and fawn over their children in public spaces (we want passers-by to witness these interactions). Ideally, this should be repeated monthly. As the religious are considerably more apt to have children, this effort is likely to stimulate more motherhood within participating churches as well.

2) teach the need to encourage women who are civic-minded enough/fear God enough/are patriotic enough, etc., to be mothers, in every school (e.g., K-University);

3) encourage regular statements by Presidents, Governors, and other leaders about the demographic crisis and how each of us can help solve it by showing gratitude to mothers as we do to members of the military (something like 4 to 8 times more frequently);

4) flood the media with Public Service Announcements touting the reality of the demographic crisis and the sacrifice of mothers who help solve it;

5) put up posters/billboards and/or buy ads on media/the internet encouraging motherhood;

6) enlist private enterprise to encourage motherhood by having at least one ‘mothers’ day’ with 10% – 25% off of goods or services each month exclusively for mothers;

7) give special benefits to mothers with children on transit (e.g., special discounts for bus/tram/train/airline rides for pregnant mothers, mothers with children in tow); and

8) hire influencers to visit shopping areas and post on the internet to encourage motherhood.

AI says that raising the TFR just 0.1 would result in ~1 million additional babies who would cost a quarter of a $trillion to raise. But a million additional adults would (at current value ~$76K/yr.) yield about $2.28 trillion over their 30 years of employment. Given these adults would be Americans, we’d likely get some useful processes and inventions out of them as well.

If most citizens put some effort into making our society more baby-welcoming and mother-thanking, we could do something other than just fret about this growing problem.