For Stefi Markowicz, the possibility of balancing motherhood with a thriving professional life once felt distant and unrealistic. Her daily existence before the pandemic was defined by a punishing three-hour round-trip commute, a demanding ritual that left little time or energy for family aspirations. Living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and working in public relations, Markowicz believed that her ambition to build a solid career and her dream of becoming a mother were mutually exclusive pursuits — an impression shared by many women facing similar circumstances. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped work norms in 2020, forcing millions into home offices, her outlook changed dramatically. The sudden shift allowed her to conduct her work entirely from home, eliminating the grueling commute that had previously consumed so much of her life. By June of this year, at the age of 27, she welcomed her first child, a son — a life milestone she hadn’t expected to reach so soon.
Markowicz attributes this earlier-than-anticipated step into motherhood to the changes brought by a more flexible lifestyle. Working remotely not only restructured her daily routine but also gave her the stability and confidence to start a family earlier in her life. Her experience underscores a broader trend that has begun to receive serious academic attention. A recent Stanford University study supports this connection between flexible work environments and higher fertility rates, suggesting that Stefi’s personal story represents a much larger social development unfolding across the United States.
According to the study, an estimated 80,000 additional births have occurred each year between 2021 and 2025 as a direct consequence of the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work models born out of the pandemic. The researchers found that couples who work from home at least one day a week are not only more likely to conceive but also more inclined to plan for larger families in the future compared with their counterparts who maintain a traditional five-day in-office schedule. Drawing on survey data from 19,000 individuals across 38 countries, along with recorded birth statistics from 2021 to 2025, the study’s findings reveal a consistent pattern: even when only one member of a couple works remotely part-time, the likelihood of conception still increases noticeably.
Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, who co-authored the research with Ph.D. student Katelyn Cranney, explained that when individuals spend more time at home, the logistical and emotional barriers to raising children decrease significantly. Easy access to childcare during the day, more flexible working hours, and the simple physical presence of both partners create a fertile environment for family life. Bloom added a wry observation that remote work does not only enable parenting but also facilitates the very process of conception, noting humorously, “It’s hard to conceive by email.” Beneath the humor lies a serious insight: proximity and well-being — both enhanced by telecommuting — are critical ingredients for family formation.
The scale of the transformation in the American workforce has been profound. Between 2019 and 2021, the proportion of U.S. workers primarily operating from home tripled, reaching 17.9% — approximately 28 million people — according to U.S. Census Bureau data. This pivot, the Stanford research suggests, is a primary driver of the recent uptick in birth rates, reversing or at least tempering years of consistent decline. Yet this trend now faces new obstacles. Major corporations such as Amazon, Dell, and JPMorgan Chase have begun requiring employees to return to their physical offices full-time, reversing pandemic-era flexibility. Others have scaled back hybrid options by limiting the number of permissible remote days. Data from commercial real estate firm JLL reveal that by the third quarter ending in September, office vacancy rates declined for the first time since early 2019 — a signal of this movement back toward pre-pandemic norms.
The issue intersects with national policy discussions and even high-level ambitions. Figures such as former President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Elon Musk have publicly expressed interest in boosting U.S. birth rates, which had been steadily decreasing until 2024, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded a modest increase. The factors behind Americans’ hesitation to have children are complex: high childcare expenses, limited paid parental leave, and the prohibitive cost of housing often make family expansion seem unattainable. Yet the Stanford study implies that the structural shift brought by remote and hybrid work could represent one of the few scalable solutions to these barriers — a change rooted not in government intervention but in evolving workplace culture.
Complementary research from the Institute for Family Studies, a socially conservative think tank, proposes a related — though distinct — solution. Its recent survey of more than 6,000 U.S. adults found that access to larger living spaces could similarly encourage higher fertility rates. The study observed that nearly half of respondents desiring family-sized dwellings said that additional bedrooms would make them feel substantially more ready to start or expand a family. The unmet demand for spacious, child-friendly housing thus parallels the demand for flexible work, suggesting multiple societal levers could help reinvigorate family formation.
Before the pandemic radically reshaped her life, Markowicz lived in Los Angeles, where her exhausting commute often meant leaving home early in the morning and returning late in the evening. Each day blurred into the next, with too little time left for personal reflection or rest. She couldn’t imagine growing a family without abandoning her career just as it was beginning to flourish. But as lockdowns spread, she — like many others — responded by moving closer to home support networks. She relocated to Fort Lauderdale to live with her parents, continuing her remote PR role from her childhood bedroom. This relocation provided both emotional reassurance and a strong logistical foundation.
About a year into her new arrangement, Markowicz met her future husband through the dating app Hinge. Their relationship developed quickly, culminating in marriage in late 2022. By that time, she had transitioned to a new employer that embraced permanent remote work policies, while her husband, employed in construction management, worked on a hybrid schedule. The combination of their two flexible routines made a previously unthinkable future suddenly attainable. Realizing that she could sustain her career without sacrificing proximity to her future children, she decided she could indeed be the kind of working mother who was both present and fulfilled. With newfound optimism, the couple decided to try for a child.
“It’s so much easier to imagine raising a family without the daily stress of commuting,” she reflected. The hours once lost to traffic now became opportunities to rest, strengthen her relationship, and build a supportive home environment. When she learned she was pregnant in late 2024, the timing coincided with an unexpected career shift: a layoff. Rather than embarking on an uncertain job search while visibly pregnant, Markowicz seized the opportunity to create her own PR agency, operating entirely from home. This move gave her complete control over her schedule and reinforced the autonomy that remote work can grant to working parents.
Now, as a first-time mother, Markowicz coordinates daily childcare with both her mother and a nearby day-care center, ensuring her son’s needs are met while maintaining her fledgling business. The proximity of her support system underscores the practicality of her lifestyle — one that would have been impossible had she still been tethered to an office. Laughing, she admits that commuting to a physical workplace would make her current balance unmanageable. Yet in her home office, flexible hours allow her to tend to both clients and her child without guilt or exhaustion. The couple is already looking ahead, hoping to expand their family in the future as long as they can preserve their hybrid work flexibility. “We definitely want to have another kid,” she says confidently — a statement that quietly embodies the intersection of personal fulfillment, professional autonomy, and the evolving structure of modern work.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/extra-births-align-with-work-from-home-stanford-study-2025-10
