Birth decline

A friend and myself had a discussion about why was there a decline in the number of births at the beginning of the 20th centuary. Forgetting about the 2 World wars and the Boar war. How did this happen? No birth control until the 1960s. Up to about 1900 there were large families of 8 or more.

Has this only happened in my tree, I know I was not aware of it until the 1911 census came out.

Just interested to know what you think.

siamese

My father, b. 1909, was the eldest boy in a family of 13 children; my mother, b. 1915, was the fifth child in a family of eight children.

My husband's father, b. 1912, was the eldest of two; husband's mother, b. 1918, was an only child.

I researched a tree for a friend and found a family (living in adjacent terraced houses) on the 1911 census of 16 children.

So I think what I'm saying is I think it depends where you look.



STG

Yes maybe, but how did the families who had small families manage it? Like mine for example. My parents married in 1938, he was turned down due to back problems when he went to sign up for the war so was home, I the eldest was born in 1943 and my sister 1948.

I was researching a family who married in 1900,they had 2 children in the first 2 years and that was it. The father was a post man.

siamese

I know this is an American article, but much of it probably goes for the UK too.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/history_bc_methods.pdf

Just to add my numbers to the equation. All 4 of my grandparents were born between 1901 and 1907 and they were from families of 7, 8, 10 and 13 children.

What do you mean by how did small families manage it? Manage not to have more do you mean?

Well learnt something, never realised there was birth control back in those days.

siamese