> predominantly caused by telling women they should prioritise education and career over children

Who is “telling them that”? Society by allowing them to open a checking account? Women’s suffrage? The reality is that other than the most privileged, a modern family can’t afford to function without both parents working. I assume you’re for raising the minimum wage to allow a family to run on a single income with multiple children? Or your solution is to send us back to the dark ages and remove womens rights?

> enabling the invention of the single mother who survives on government largesse.

There’s literally nobody who has kids as a single mother with the goal of raising them on welfare, that might be the single most ridiculous statement in this thread.

> Separating church and state appears to be contributing at least to some extent.

The Russian Orthodox Church is government sponsored. How’s their birth rate going?

It's definitely not true that both parents need to work. I know many families where only one parent has an income, and it is a very low income (one works as a mover for example) and they manage to eat and live etc.

Do they live upper middle class on this income? No. But they do live and have multiple children.