The “population bomb” scenario overlooked the fact that people naturally stop having so many children as their standard of living and education improves — it makes sense to concentrate on quality over quantity.
***makes sense to concentrate on quality over quantity.***
Yet the real reason for having many children at that time was that most of them would not make it to adulthood.
Most would die as children. Some would make it to the teen years. One or two might make it to old age and have families.
There is a story about a doctor who went into the jungles somewhere and gave the children innoclulations against diseases.
When he told the tribal elders how this would allow the children to live to old age, they said ....It was good, but who would feed them?
Urbanization is the key factor in decline in population growth. In the early 1960s, the typical Mexican woman had 6.2 children. This figure was down to 2.3 children as Mexican society became more urbanized. Its common sense actually: in the city, there are more diversions. In the country, your diversions are farming and procreation.