Developing Countries: Birth Control?

Agreed. Having a large family, "many hands", allows for more members of the family to carry out needed work: caring for other members of the family, tending to livestock, crops, etc. Strongly agree. It may seem harsh and tyrannical, but China's policy of enforcing the "one child per family" has lowered their nations Total Fertility Rate. A double-edged sword, it seems.

In a developing nation that suffers from malnutrition and starvation, yes, many children will starve, or succumb to disease, but these are some of the reasons they "pop out" so many children, because they know that to have 5 or 7 or 10 children increases their chances that some of their children will survive: natural selection at work.And the added pressure of having more children (financially for example) in a deveoping nation isn't as steep as it is to have 5 or 7 or 10 children in a developed nation.

Old days? Nowadays? Would you mind clarifying? Neither do I. Citizens of less-developed nations want what we want: to pass on their genes to the next generation. If in developed nations the infant mortality rate is lower, a greater rate of children live to reproduce and pass on their genes, and it costs more to raise their children, they will find it beneficial to have fewer children.If in less-developed nations the infant mortality rate is higher,a lesser number of children live to reproduce themselves, and it costs less to raise a child, they will find it beneficial to have a higher number of children so as to increase the chance of their genes being passed on to the next generation.Edited by Infixion, : Tweaked last sentence.