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Motherhood

Opinion

Charlotte Mortlock Journalist and political adviser September 11, 2025 — 11.51am

As a very new mother, I was prepared for breastfeeding to be a nightmare. For sleep to be non-existent. For a love unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. But no one braced me for comedy.

Earlier this year, pop star Chappell Roan came under fire when she said the quiet bit out loud: she doesn’t know anyone with children who is happy, and those that have children “are in hell”. Are we surprised that Western civilisation is suffering from cataclysmic population shrinkage if that’s what pop stars are telling young fans? Who wants to willingly enter into 18 years of “hell”?

It’s now likely we will see the global population starting to decline by

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