In The News: Public Health’s Robin Pickering on U.S. Birthrate Concerns

June 13, 2025

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Robin Pickering | Public Health

The declining birthrate in the United States has become a hot-button topic among the country’s politicians and policy makers. The fewer babies born in America, the greater the implications for the country’s labor force and economy.

Gonzaga’s Robin Pickering, department chair of public health in the School of Health Sciences, recently penned a piece for the Seattle Times noting that the people concerned with America’s birthrate rarely mention a big reason for the trend: Giving birth “can be dangerous, expensive and unsupported.”

“The U.S. ranks poorly among developed nations for maternal and infant health outcomes,” Pickering writes. “Shockingly, America has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy countries, with about 32 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, more than 10 times higher than countries such as Norway and New Zealand.

“Even more alarming are the stark disparities: Black women in America face a maternal mortality rate nearly three times higher than white women. And most of these deaths, over 80% according to CDC data, are likely preventable.”

Effective strategies that would improve health outcomes for mothers and babies and potentially incentivize childbearing, Pickering adds, include increased parental leave, greater health care access, affordable child care, educational efforts around family planning and support for vaccination efforts. However, each of those strategies is currently under attack, often by the same politicians publicly bemoaning the country’s declining birthrate.

“Policymakers must recognize that simply calling for higher birthrates without addressing these foundational issues is unrealistic and ineffective.”