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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Wellness Unmasked: Are We Facing a Baby Bust? Understanding America's Declining Birthrate
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- [00:00]
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- [02:11]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Hula.
- [02:11]
Emma Waters
We got one play.
- [02:12]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Everything we work for comes down to this quick question. Speaking of workouts, how would you rate your athletic program? Bro, we're in the middle of the state championship.
- [02:20]
Advertiser
Oh, so like a B then?
- [02:22]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Dude, get out of our huddle.
- [02:24]
Emma Waters
Well, at holmes.com we leave it all.
- [02:25]
Dr. Nicole Safire
On the field to get you detailed information on local schools.
- [02:29]
Emma Waters
Off the field. Off the field. Copy. All right.
- [02:32]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Go sports.
- [02:33]
Emma Waters
How'd he even get in here?
- [02:35]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Holmes.com Bingo.
- [02:36]
Emma Waters
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Emma Waters
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Emma Waters
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- [03:10]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Welcome to Wellness Unmass. I'm your host, Dr. Nicole Safire. And today we're diving into kind of a quiet but potentially a consequential crisis. America's steadily declin birth rate. That's right. When it comes to how many babies we're having, we are below what it's recommended if we're going to keep our population up. Meaning as our population continues to age, we're having fewer and fewer babies. And ever since 2023, our numbers are way below where it needs to be. That 2.1 is that goal, Mark. They want people to be having on average about about two kids per woman. While Elon Musk has been very vocal about this for anybody who follows him on X, I mean, he obviously makes headlines for a lot of but he's absolutely been sounding the alarm on the very issue we're going to be discussing. He said in quote, population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warning. Mark these words. And he continues to say things like he argued that we need a fertility rate of at least 2.7 children per women. So not two children per women, but he's arguing up to three to stabilize the population because so many today are choosing not to have children at all. So why is that? Well, there's a lot of reasons. There are fewer people getting married. People are getting married and having babies later on in life. So therefore they're having fewer kids. It's more expensive. We're also seeing fertility issues here in the United States and across the world. You have menstruation changes in young girls, a lot of women having difficulty having babies. And then on top of that, the answer to everyone's problem seems to be ivf. Well, IVF is expensive and it's not something that everybody wants to do. And so instead of tackling the root causes of why people aren't having as many babies anymore. We keep just saying, all right, well, we'll just do IVF or we'll do whatever it is, but we need to look at some of the root causes. I'm extremely excited today to have Emma Waters. She's a policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. This is what she does. She has studied policies all across the globe because the United States, we're not the only ones with low birth rates. In fact, there are a lot of other countries that are much lower than ours, including Europe and Asia. And so she has looked at all the policies that they've done to see what works and what doesn't work. You're listening to Wellness Unmass. We'll be right back with more. Did you know that collagen makes up about 30% of the body's total protein and it's essential for healthy joints, skin elasticity, bone strength and even your gut lining. Starting as early as your 30s, collagen production declines by roughly 1% each year. By age 60, you may have lost nearly half of your body's total collagen, contributing to joint degeneration, wrinkles and brittle bones. Multiple clinical studies have shown that supplementing with collagen can help reverse some of this decline. In one, trial, participants saw a 43% reduction in joint pain within just six months. In another, women experienced up to a 20% increase in skin elasticity after 12 weeks. That's why I trust Native path collagen. Its peptides are clinically shown to be highly bioavailable and meaning your body can actually absorb them and use them to rebuild damaged tissue. If you're serious about aging well, like I am, Native path collagen is one of the smartest, most evidence based choices you can make. Go online and visit explorenativepath.com Here you'll receive a special bundle offer of up to 45% off. ExploreNativePath.com is the website you need to know to start replenishing what your body needs. Please join me. That website again is ExploreNative Path.
- [06:48]
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- [10:05]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Okay, well, joining me today is Emma Waters, policy expert at the Heritage foundation, where she focuses on family formation, marriage and demographic trends. Emma has been one of the boldest voices sounding the alarm on our declining birth rate and pushing back against the idea that this is just an inevitable shift. So, Emma, do you agree with Elon Musk when he says that population collapse is truly our greatest existence central threat?
- [10:30]
Emma Waters
I think that Elon Musk has done more than almost anyone to raise awareness about declining birth rates to a national and even global scale. When he says that declining birth rates are the number one demographic crisis, however, I think that's where I probably would deviate a little bit and say that it's not just declining birth rates that we're concerned about, but it's the failure for of millions of families to form families in the United States. So it's not simply that we're having fewer children, but it's that fewer people are getting married and forming those necessary bonds that really are the basis of our society.
- [11:06]
Dr. Nicole Safire
So when you say that, I mean you are taking this to a greater scale. Elon Musk is essentially saying we're just not having enough babies to replace, you know, our aging population. We see it all over the world. We have declining birth rates. They say that you want to be at 2.1 births per per woman to be able to replace the population and continue to grow. A lot of countries are below that. And since 2023, the US is now below that as well. But you are pointing to kind of bigger issues. It's not just about how many babies women are having, but the question is, why aren't they having babies? And what are your thoughts on that?
- [11:43]
Emma Waters
Yeah, this is exactly right. So if you look beyond even the 21st century and go back to the 20th century, long before we had declining birth rates in the United States, we had a marriage cris. And so from the 1960s and 1970s onward, we saw divorce spike. We saw an increase in single parenthood. Some of this was motivated by no fault divorce, some of this by the sexual revolution and hookup culture. But marriage was really redefined in the 20th century and from then onwards has shifted away from being the cornerstone or the basis of a person's life that they build and become the capstone, something that they seek to sort of tap Cap off their career success, their personal fulfillment. And so with that shift to view marriage as something we pursue later in life, as an add on to who we are, not the basis of maybe who we are in our family and our nation, we've seen declining birth rates come out of that. So you're absolutely right. In 2023 and then 2024, birth rates have been declining a lot in the United States. So we're now down to 1.59 births on average per woman, which is well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Now, the United States is about neck and neck with most European nations on this front. So developing nations and Israel tend to have a much higher birth rate. But sadly, with the United States and Europe, there's just been an ongoing downward trend. So the reasons for that are complicated. And I like to say that if anyone tells you that there's a single driver for declining birth rates, they're probably trying to sell you something, which is usually a single solution for declining birth rates. And I think both of those approaches really miss the point here. And so there's a couple of things to keep in mind. The first is the economic question. And so the economic portion of this is really interesting to me because on the one hand, there are serious economic factors that make it harder to form and sustain families, especially of multiple children today. And so there's a very real sense that we do need to provide married working families with support in having the children and families that they desire. On the other hand, across the United States and the globe, when you see a country increase its GDP or its affluence material wealth, you see birth rates decline. And so there's this inverted relationship where the more wealthy a country becomes, the more wealthy a state becomes, their birth rates tend to decline. And this is the case across the United States. States with a higher median income have a lower birth rate compared to states.
- [14:18]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Why do you think that is?
- [14:20]
Emma Waters
I think so there's a couple. I think there's a couple of potential things. Catherine Bacolic, a professor at Catholic University of America, she makes the argum argument that children are no longer an economic necessity. And so in lower income nations and potentially states, you need children to help support the family business, the family well being, to work to help take care of children. There's more of an economic necessity for them. And certainly that was more the case in the 20th century than the 21st. But I think what you're also seeing is an elevated expectation for what you should provide children. So think about, like my great grandparents they had like, you know, eight kids, and they were like, all right, kids, I fed you, I put you through school, you worked on the farm, you turned 18, good luck, get out there, figure something out. Very much like, do it yourself mindset. And there wasn't really an expectation that parents were necessarily financially providing above the necessities for children, and certainly not once they reached adulthood. Whereas today, there's this driving expectation where parents are not only providing the car when they turn 16, providing the best education that they can buy, which oftentimes can be very pricey, providing a number of other material goods, but also there's college, there's a wedding, there's providing for your kids throughout. And while those are all like, very, very good things, I think the expectation that that's the norm to provide for every child has meant that most families who aren't making above $100,000 are looking at it and saying, well, I may be able to do that for one kid, I may be able to do it for two, but it's going to be really hard to sustain three or four children at that rate. And even for families making much more than that, I think there's been a shift in our mindset where we'. Where the expectation is you want to give as much as possible to the children you can provide for, which just tends to be fewer than a large family. Yeah. So I think, like, the materialism part of that is interesting because it also means that simply providing large cash or financial incentives to have children I don't think really addresses the problem because it just plays into that shift towards materialism a little bit more. So countries across Europe who have seen spent millions of dollars supporting families have not seen an increase in their birth rates. And despite very generous programs, most birth rates in Europe have continued to decline.
- [16:47]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Not just Europe. Right. We're talking all across the world. I think Singapore, Japan, South Korea, they all gave like the birth grants up to. South Korea gave up to $10,000 birth grants per baby, plus free child care care, fertility subsidies and housing perks for parents. And they have still remained the world's lowest birth rate at, I think, less than 1.7 or something along those lines.
- [17:13]
Emma Waters
Well, and South Korea is so interesting, too, because they even give you paid time off for, quote, unquote, procreation days, which is hilarious.
- [17:20]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Like, they were literally bring back to the United States.
- [17:23]
Emma Waters
Right. So, yeah, Celestia. Yeah, no, it's. It's really. And it's really interesting in South Korea because you also see an increase in. It's Particularly in South Korea, China, and Japan, where a number of women are simply saying, that's fine, like, the government wants us to have more babies, but, like, we really just care about our careers. And it's not, like, a bad thing by any means. Right. Like, I love my job and the work that I do, but there's this, like, interesting shift where it's not an expectation that you can pursue marriage, motherhood, and your career, but that you're. That they're choosing between the two. And increasingly, especially in those countries, they're choosing career and foregoing children and marriage altogether. And I think there's a lot of cultural baggage there that's being unpacked slowly but surely. But that's another really interesting part of this, where I think women in particular are feeling like they have to choose between the two in a way that doesn't really match for a good family or a desire to have many children.
- [18:17]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Well, that's an interesting point. As myself, you know, I went to college, to medical school, to advanced training. Being a professional woman. You hear a lot of people when they talk about the declining birth rate is that ever since education and women joined the professional workforce, you know, this just went hand in hand. And I can understand that to some extent. And I think I actually saw a stat. Don't quote me, that in the last year or two, there were more women in the United states in their 40s having babies than teenagers, which on one hand is excellent, that we're not having as many teen pregnancies. However, to be over 40, when you are over 40 starting to have your babies, the chances of you having more than one drastically decrease. And on top of that, you have more difficult time having a baby in general.
- [19:06]
Emma Waters
Yeah, that's absolutely right. And I think that's a part of the conversation, too, is just the age of first marriage is rising continually, and the age of first child is rising continually. And that brings in maybe one of the more controversial parts of the conversation when it comes to IVF or other assisted reproductive technologies. So what's interesting is the CDC announced their. This new decline in birth rates last week, and then the next day was National IVF Day. And so in many cases, especially across the United States and actually across Europe and Asia, people have talked about IVF being the solution for declining birth rates, that men and women are struggling to have kids. They're waiting later. So you have China, who's investing millions of dollars and opening new IVF clinics all across the country. You have Hungary.
- [19:56]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Seems like putting a band aid on a Bullet wound. Like you're not addressing a root cause causes of why women aren't having babies.
- [20:02]
Emma Waters
Yeah, exactly. That's exactly it. Yeah. And what's really interesting is there's one study that's been done in the United States looking at corporations and state level IVF mandates where they're offering to pay for it. And while the really interesting takeaway from those five studies was that when there's an IVF mandate in place, the overall birth rate does not actually increase. But you do see younger women slightly less likely to have children, and you have older women slightly more likely to have children. And in one study, it actually showed a small delay in marriage rates too, before and after the implementation. And so what that suggests is that there's an unintended consequence when these technologies are viewed as the solution to declining birth rates because it provides this hope that you can delay children much longer than maybe would be biologically best for, for your, for your body. But then the out the like net result is that you're actually far less likely to have a larger family. So if you don't start having kids until you're in your 40s, like you said, the number of children that you can reasonably have is just much, much lower. And so I think that's also an interesting part of this is like simply relying on these technologies, which has certainly helped millions of men and women have children that they deeply love and desire, is not going to actually be the solution to declining birth rates, even if it does help couples who are struggling with infertility.
- [21:28]
Dr. Nicole Safire
So when we've looked at countries across the world who have been doing a lot of these policies trying to increase their birth rates, it's pretty clear that the cash bonuses, anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per child, really doesn't have a strong effect. That's one thing that we're talking about doing here in the United States, but it doesn't really. It sounds great, but it doesn't seem that it has long term impact. Also, other countries have done free childcare and some other supportive measures along those lines. And those are the Democrats here in the United States. They're big talking points. Well, if we had free child care, if we had, you know, these births, cash incentives, then maybe we'd see a rise. But when we look globally, it doesn't necessarily move the needle. Are there particular countries whose strategies that you find, you know, instructive or cautionary?
- [22:15]
Emma Waters
Yes, this is a really great question. Yeah, it seems like across the globe, Hungary is of course one of the biggest Examples of a country who's invested, I think up to 4 to 5% of their national GDP in these pro family policy measures and so on. I think it's, they've been, well, it's really interesting, they've been successful in boosting the marriage rate and the abortion rate has declined as a consequence. But their birth rate has unfortunately continued to decline again. It initially saw a bump and it started to decline, which is like, not like this is something, I think everyone is grieving. This isn't a, oh, poor hungry, like we're cheering that you were wrong. This is something that I think has been really instructive and really heartbreaking to see. Because clearly whatever is causing the decline in birth rates isn't something that can just be solved with these financial incentives and is incredibly complicated. And to your point, with paid child care, paid parental leave, a number of these policies, none of them have shown a reverse in the birth rate. Maybe it's helped sustain birth rates so they're not falling as fast as they otherwise would have. But the examples that we've seen internationally have not actually borne the fruit. What's really interesting is the countries that have either sustained their birth rates or reversed birth rates. You have Israel, which is an anomaly for a number of reasons, right? Like the particular cultural context, religious context, military context, I think has helped spur on a deep nationalism and desire to have children. But you have a really interesting test case in Romania where Romania has actually seen. No, sorry, it's Georgia. The country of Georgia has actually seen a really interesting shift in birth rates. And it was because one of the bishops of the Coptic Church came and said, I'll baptize any babies that are born, you know, this year onwards, personally. And it was a really funny story because they saw a surge in their birth rate after that. And there's this sense, I think, where the, and this is where we move beyond the economic question to actually address declining birth rates. It one has to be situated in the family. It can't simply be a conversation of, you know, women, apart from marriage and marriage, it doesn't matter, have more babies. And two, there's this spiritual and religious component to this. And this is beyond what should be a government policy, right, or government initiative. But there's this very real sense where happy and hope filled people tend to have babies. People who believe in something greater than themselves, a transcendent God, whatever religion that is, tend to be people who have more children. You see this across many Muslim nations. You see this across India, Israel, Georgia, in this instance, where There's a high level of religiosity, this idea that you're investing in something greater than yourself. You, you tend to see higher birth rates. And I think there's a reason for this twofold. One is that religious faiths have a, tend to have a very good theology of suffering. And I think anyone with children know that, like having children is a gift and it's a blessing and it's one of the greatest things you can ever do. And yet it's really incredibly hard and really hard things happen, whether it's the loss of a child or injuries or just the fact that raising children difficult and time consuming and requires you giving so much of yourself and within. If you ascribe to a religion, I think you see people who have a good theology for thinking through suffering, suffering not as an end in itself, but actually pointing towards a greater good and a greater investment. And so I think that's just a really interesting part of the conversation where when we're thinking about encouraging family formation and boosting birth rates in the United States, we need to have a conversation where having families is not only aspirational but attainable. And that needs to be promoted not only by media and conversations like these, not only in our political discourse, but also among religious leaders and really spotlighting religious leaders as essential yet leaders in this movement to help turn, yeah, help turn family formation around more.
- [26:24]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Coming up on Wellness unmasked with Dr. Nicole Safire. Did you know that collagen makes up about 30% of the body's total protein? And it's essential for healthy joints, skin elasticity, bone strength, and even your gut lining. Starting as early as your 30s, collagen production declines by roughly 1% each year. By age 60, you may have lost nearly half of your body's total collagen, contributing to joint degeneration, wrinkles, and brittle bones. Multiple clinical studies have shown that supplementing with collagen can help reverse some of this decline. In one trial, participants saw a 43% reduction in joint pain within just six months months. In another, women experienced up to a 20% increase in skin elasticity after 12 weeks. That's why I trust native path collagen. Its peptides are clinically shown to be highly bioavailable, meaning your body can actually absorb them and use them to rebuild damaged tissue. If you're serious about aging well, like I am, Native path collagen is one of the smartest, most evidence based choices you can make. Go online and visit explorenativepath.com Here you'll receive a special bundle offer of up to 45% off. ExploreNativePath.com is the website you need to know to start replenishing what your body needs. Please join me. That website again is explorenativepath.com Tired of.
- [27:45]
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- [31:01]
Dr. Nicole Safire
So we have President Trump who's talking about some things that he wants to do to try and get the birth rate up, especially after Elon Musk went on his ex posting rampage all about it and got everybody up in a tizzy. You know, with RFK Jr. At HHS and President Trump in the White House. In your view, what are maybe the most impactful policies that the White House or Congress or even just states can pursue? I know that you say we obviously want to get religious organizations, communities all involved, but is there something on a policy level, and you've obviously studied policies from all across the world, what do you think can be done here in the United States?
- [31:37]
Emma Waters
Yes, and going back to what I said earlier, there's no single solution, but I think there are a number of smaller policies that working together, can hopefully boost and even reverse declining birth rates. And so at Heritage and within my own research, we very much take an all hands on deck approach to this. So I think there are a lot of things that the executive that HHS and even states can be doing to help increase, encourage family formation and birth rates in the United States. So a couple of those things. One, I'm really interested in the development of something like a family bonus, so some sort of financial support for married working families, much like the baby bonus that President Trump has announced. Things like the baby bond investment, I think are a way of showing that we value and are willing to invest our resources in children. I don't think any of those financial measures in and out of themselves are going to reverse trends or be the solution, but I think it's part of a larger package. They're really positive things the United States can do At Heritage, we've really looked at revamping the entire tax code to really focus on supporting married working families. So whether that's an increase in the child tax credit or another metric, I think there's a lot that we can do there. Paying taxes the last few years. We have two children and certainly the modest child tax credit that we get get is great. But I think everyone knows that investing in children is far more expensive than just the 2000 you get back for young children. And the way that young children help stimulate the gdp, there's maybe more we could do to help put money back in the pockets of hard working married families.
- [33:11]
Dr. Nicole Safire
So that something one of the ones that I saw, I think it was Hungary, they essentially said lifetime income tax exemption for mothers who have four children or more. I'm a mother of three, so I would advocate it should be at three. But lifetime income tax exemption, I mean that would absolutely. If one of the concerns is the economics of raising children, that would make a difference there. Also I think I've seen like interest free housing loans, you could talk about property taxes. I mean, there are all these ways to. The federal government could incentivize and state governments can incentivize people to have babies.
- [33:45]
Emma Waters
Yeah, exactly. And simply saying, if you want to have children, we're here to relieve the financial pressures. What's really interesting is Hungary initially had it set at I think four or more children. And I think they lowered the number down to three or more children because they were struggling to have women hit that number. So again, in and of itself, I don't think it's going to be the thing that changes the birth rate, but certainly it would be really helpful for those who do have larger families. Beyond that, I think a really important part of this conversation is the fact that there is high rates of infertility in the United States. There's a high rate of reproductive health conditions, particularly for women like endometriosis and pcos us that have largely gone undiagnosed or a delayed diagnosis with very little research and funding going into treating those conditions. So I think this is where I spend a lot of my time researching. But I think the more we can do to help boost a federal or a state level RESTORE Act. Arkansas actually just enacted the first state level RESTORE act in April. And it simply provides research and funding support for families and individuals who are hoping to treat their reproductive health conditions, recognizing that not only does it help remove barriers for successful pregnancy, but it also just improves an individual's overall health and well being. Because we know that an individual's reproductive health is a good indicator of their overall physical health and their ability to flourish in their given season of life. And so I think the more that we can do to really help support and provide families with the resources they need to address their infertility is a huge part of this. Right? Because how many millions of Americans desperately want to have children, and not just one child later in life, but have a big family of kids and yet are struggling to do so? And I think that should. That should just be unacceptable given the medical innovation, given the knowledge that we have the ability that we have to treat disease in the United States. And so that's, I think, another big part of this is helping address infertility, reproductive health conditions. And then beyond that, I think there's a number of things that we could look at doing improving our single family housing affordability in the United States. I think the Senate is. Has just introduced the ROADS act, looking at addressing more affordable family housing. I think that's a huge part of the conversation, a bit outside of my individual expertise, but something that I know my family and many families would love to see shifts in. And. Yeah, then beyond that, I think this becomes a massive cultural conversation. So one of the most encouraging developments from the executive has been the presence of young children in the White House again. So one of my favorite things to watch is Vice President J.D. vance and his family. So at inauguration, his three children sitting there, his son, like, goes to hit his wife's hair, and you can see her just, like, keep the poise of, like, I have worked so hard for this hair. You're not going to mess it up. And yet just sort of laughing and enjoying that. Like, kids are a little chaotic and they're, you know, you can't control what they're going to do or when they're going to act out or what's going to happen. And yet it is good. And they are not only tolerated, but they're welcome in our public spaces. And so seeing his children come off Air Force One in their pajamas, tour the world with them, I think on a cultural level, that is such a powerful example of the kind of the way that we want to welcome children in again, not just as something we tolerate, but it's something that we celebrate, bringing them to conferences, having them integrated in our life so that there's not this strict divide between work and the home, but that we do everything we can to welcome children in all public spaces, from our work to our public communities and beyond. And I think Those sorts of examples being set by the most prominent leaders in the United States is going to have a massive, even if subtle impact on the way that we think about children and family formation.
- [37:28]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Well, you know what? I know a lot of people are feeling discouraged when they heard Elon Musk talking about it when they look across the world and maybe even after our conversation, they might be feeling discouraged about as a population, what we're doing. But is there any hopeful message that you can give people just to offer to them? I mean, I've had three children. I'm doing my part, but what else for other people who maybe haven't started having their kids yet?
- [37:52]
Emma Waters
Yeah, no, this is a really, really great thing. So, you know, I think the first thing I would say is that for those who are on the fence about children, we have research and self reported studies as well as just many examples of families across the United States, myself included, who have talked about what an just absolute blessing and delight children are. And for those who are really thinking through the career dynamic, how to have children. I think the thing I say is that there are always going to be unknowns in life and there are always going to be things that are beyond our control. But without a doubt having children is going to be one of the greatest adventures that you endeavor on. It's going to bring such a sense of purpose and meaning in your life and be a way that you continue to grow and mature as a person throughout time. So I think that there's just this incredible opportunity before us just to take a risk and jump in and trust that having kids will be like learning how to walk. It's a little awkward and difficult at first, but then you just sort of figure it out as you go and that it is a good thing and that it's something that certainly is and can be attainable for all Americans. And I think the second thing I would say is that it's never that this. Yeah, this is the perfect opportunity to consider what your overall family planning goals are, your life planning goals, that this is the time to have the conversation either with yourself. Thinking through my career, next steps and where do children and marriage fit in, or with your partner now and finding ways that even if, if you don't have children, you can be supportive and involved in others lives. I think some of the like, without a doubt the biggest blessings my husband and I have experienced outside of having kids are our friends who have stepped in and been an active part of their lives, especially before they've been able to have kids. And so they come and they hang out with our kids, they're happy to babysit, they come for dinner, they are understanding and accommodating when we have limitations because of young children or the fact that both of our mothers and families have done, done so much to come and be present and help with us. So I think even if you're outside of your childbearing years or not able to have kids right now, asking how you can be involved in the lives of others with kids is. Yeah, maybe one of the next is one of the best things that you can do. And I think that's where there's a role for everyone to play in this conversation. Because again, ultimately, this isn't just a numbers game. It's not about, oh, we're at 1.59, how can we get to 2.1, and then everything's solved. But it's a much bigger question of how do we actually solve support, family flourishing and human flourishing in the United States. And we know that national prosperity, community flourishing, and individual happiness is, is tied to those meaningful relationships, whether that's biological parenthood, adoptive parenthood, or spiritual parenthood and the lives of others. So I think that's the hopeful message I would turn people to. Yeah. And to take time to just appreciate the adventure, however chaotic that having kids and being involved in the lives of, of kids brings you, I love that.
- [40:46]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Appreciate the adventure. Well, Emma Waters from the Heritage foundation, thank you so much for giving us your knowledge and really your hopeful message. At the end, I think is my favorite part, because I think that's what people lack a lot these days is they just hear all the bad news. But there is hope, and it is incredibly meaningful to be a parent if you choose to be. Thank you for joining us.
- [41:06]
Emma Waters
Absolutely. Thank you.
- [41:07]
Dr. Nicole Safire
Well, we talk a lot about health on the show, and the truth is, family health, demographic health and cultural health, obviously they're all intertwined. And now Emma talked about a lot of things, and one of the things that she touched on is something that is very near and dear to my heart is why are our fertility rates low? I'm not just talking about why women are having fewer babies. There's a lot of reasons women are having fewer babies. But why are women unable to have babies like they were able to 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago? The answer is, well, we don't have a black or white answer to it. It's probably multifactorial as well. Is it the microplastics in our diet, the ultra processed foods? Is it all the hormones that we consume in the meats that we eat. You know, it's probably a lot of things. The reality is our metabolic system is out of whack because of our environmental exposures. RFK Jr. With the HHS, they are wanting to look at some of these things. I am watching this closely. I am hoping that they actually put effort into this. Because while I think IVF and some of the other fertility methods are are amazing and for people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to have babies, it gives them the ability to be parents and that blessing. I want to know the root causes of why women are having ovarian failure earlier. Why are we not able to have babies? And unfortunately, I think it's going to be a lot of environmental factors very similar to why we're seeing a rise in cancer as well. And it's not going to be an easy fix. So that's just one piece of the equation. We also need to focus again on marriage and just the blessing that it is to have marriage. We are social creatures. We are meant to have life partners. We're not meant to be alone in this life. So we have to make sure we get back to the sanctity of marriage. Encourage families to have babies if they want them. I'm not saying everyone needs to have children. You can have a fulfilling life without being a parent. But if you are someone who is even contemplating wanting to have babies, I don't want the cost, your job or anything silly like that to get in your way. Because as a mother myself, I can tell you there's no greater blessing in this earth than to have children. So if there is something that we can do as a society to support those who want to have babies, we need to be doing that. That needs to be a priority. Not just because our birth rates are declining and maybe it's going to be the end of civilization as we know it, like Elon Musk says, but because it's the right thing to do. Thanks for listening to Wellness Unmasked on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Wellness Unmask with Dr. Nicole Safire and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And we will see you next time.
- [43:51]
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