The UK’s birth rate has plummeted, but we literally cannot afford to have more children

But those nursery fees are on the lower end of the spectrum, thanks in part to the fact that we live in the north. One friend who lives down south pays a day rate a few pence shy of £80. Bearing in mind that the National Minimum Wage currently stands at £10.42 per hour for those 23 and over, it means that a parent working the average eight-hour shift on minimum wage would just make enough to match the day’s childcare fees . After deducting tax, pension, national insurance and travel costs… not only have they not made a profit, they’re in debt. And that’s just for one child. God forbid the parent is 20 or under; then they can be legally paid just £7.49 an hour, or £5.28 if they’re under 18.

According to Pregnant Then Screwed, the UK has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world, with costs continuing to rise: 41% of parents have had an increase of 5-10% in their childcare fees, while 14% say theirs have risen by more than 10% in the last 10 months. The inaffordability is clear to see.

Ella Delancey Jones, 31, is the host of You, Still, a podcast exploring postpartum identity. She’s a friend (our daughters were born exactly two months apart), and tells me: “The financial implications of having a second child one day are the number one reason we’re put off. We can comfortably afford our daughter with me doing the bulk of the childcare, but even with her doing just one day a week at nursery we don’t know how it will be feasible to add another baby to the mix.

“Even if we waited until my daughter was of school age,, doing so would impact my career again for several years,” Ella adds. “It’s so unfair that our choice of whether to add to our family or not is being dictated by a government who refuses to invest in the future leaders of our country.”

To those who suggest it’s her responsibility to breed for the sake of the economy, she says: “If we are to have more babies to support our ageing population and retirees, we need much more give and take – not just take. I don’t want to hear ‘why should I pay for your child?’ if you want them to pay for your pension. We need those in charge to put value on those who are going to keep things running, and those who are raising them, and stop ignoring us until everything falls apart. Because it won’t be our children’s fault.”

Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, is not coy with the truth. She tells me: “We’ve got women terminating pregnancies and thousands more deciding not to have children. Women falling out of the workforce in droves; and children being pushed into poverty. All because of an unaffordable, inaccessible, dysfunctional childcare sector that has been neglected for the past decade by this Government.

“The Autumn Statement saw the national living wage increased, which is great in theory,” she added, “but funding for nurseries was not increased alongside this announcement. More women will drop out of the workforce and fewer will be able to afford to have kids as a result.”

For myself, Ella and many more mothers and families, further children are not something we can afford at the moment. Whether this government will acknowledge that we need a functioning, well-considered solution is yet to be seen. I’m not optimistic.