Finland's stubbornly low birth rate shows why a population shift may be inevitable

toggle caption Sarah McCammon/NPR

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.

On a clear but chilly autumn day, Poa Pohjola and her partner Wilhelm Blomberg are relaxing in their Helsinki apartment while their baby naps outside on the balcony, in traditional Finnish style.

"They sleep very well outside, in colder degrees, I think," Pohjola said with a laugh. "Or, that's how I grew up thinking."

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Pohjola is 38 and Blomberg is 35. They've been together for about three years, and they started talking about having a baby early on - even though Pohjola had once thought she might never have kids.

"I think I was denying that for myself because it seemed [like] something that would be impossible to have," she said.

In her 20s, Pohjola says she struggled to figure out what she wanted from life. By the time she met Blomberg, she knew the window of opportunity to become pregnant was closing because of her age.

But one night, the couple talked about their wishes for their future, and she told Blomberg she thought she wanted