After a 2016 campaign event in Colorado Springs, then-candidate Donald Trump held two babies. As president, he wants to reverse the fall in the U.S. birth rate.

Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images

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Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images

After a 2016 campaign event in Colorado Springs, then-candidate Donald Trump held two babies. As president, he wants to reverse the fall in the U.S. birth rate.

Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images

The total fertility rate is a small number with big consequences.

It measures how many babies, on average, each woman will have over her lifetime. And for a population to remain stable – flat, no growth, no decline – women, on average, have to have 2.1 kids.

In the U.S., that number is 1.6, and dropping. It’s driving a new political debate about what – if anything – can be done about it.

The thing is, beneath that demographic data point are millions of families making intimate decisions about kids. Newsportu’s Sarah McCammon and Brian Mann dug into the politics and personal stories behind America’s shrinking birthrate.

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This episode was produced by Sarah Ventre, Liz Baker, Noah Caldwell and Connor Donevan with audio engineering by Simon-Laslo Janssen. It was edited by Megan Pratz, Andrea de Leon and Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.