Soviet Union's birth rate did not really rebound the way other nations did even provided the award. Granted, immediately after WW2 there was a large boost which

Soviet Union's birth rate did not really rebound the way other nations did even provided the award. Granted, immediately after WW2 there was a large boost which is when this award program started, but fell to just above replacement soon after. I would not draw too much on this social standing/admiration aspect. Funnily enough, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Heroine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Heroine was reinstated in 2022. Russia's current birthrate is ~1.5. Ukraine has something similar as well, they're doing quite poorly, even before their war at ~1.3. My radical take on all this birthrate stuff is that the single most effective way to boost the birthrate is to entice boredom in any way you can. The internet was a great invention, but the great cost was our attention. It's likely out of the bag that we can't revert to a minimally networked world though. I would (and do) certainly fight against attempts to ruin the internet myself.