I am pregnant with #7, and perfectly healthy. Mind you, I only have 3 children, the rest are surrogate babes, no WAY do I have any desire to have that many children.

My DHs gramma had 7. She says that it was more manageable because she had help from family (they lives with her mom) and cost of living was so much lower. The kids also had a lot less supervision than is required nowadays. She has fully admitted that she could never handled 7 kids nowadays.

Our bodies hold a pregnancy just the same as they used to. Do you know how many times a woman had to be pregnant just to get 7+ living children? Women back then were constantly miscarrying and burying their babies and children. It just wasn't talked about.

she is asking physically why. not morally or geographically. for instance, OP is asking why women CANT have as many children or have children in general without a miscarriage? she is saying our bodies don't hold pregnancy well as much as back then.

I think cost is a a major factor.

Everyone wants the fancy lifestyle, and both parties work.

In old times mum would stay home and dad would work. Mums job was the kids, gardening, making preserves, cleaning etc.

it wasn't so expensive to have a family. Now we are accustomed to just going to the shops and paying 6 times what it would cost if we made it at home..

I think ppl are talking about miscarriages more

Lots of things . Better birth control, husbands don't get away with forcing you as much , abortion , later child rearing basically just women have a choice now ??‍♀️

I think its a matter of women are judged so harshly now for having too many kids.

When i had my first it was "congratulations! I bet youre really excited!"

When i had my second it was "lucky you, you got a boy and a girl now you can stop."

When i had my third it was "wow thats too many. Are you going to get fixed now? I couldnt imagine having so many kids."

Now pregnant with my fourth all i hear is "do you not know what birth control is? They sell condoms at walmart. Do you know what causes that yet?"

If i tell people i want another later then the comments only get worse.

I think physically we are still able to, but most of my friends and colleagues didn't start having kids until our late 20's to 30's due to college, careers. It cuts short the "child-bearing" years I guess. I think ppl use to have kids much earlier.

There are also more dual working parents now than 30-50 years ago, making it harder to raise a lot of children due to costs of childcare.

I think the shrinking middle class has a lot to do with it. It's no longer feasible for most families to have a parent stay home. Its sad that with all the feminism and women's rights in 2017, women are punished more than ever for deciding to have a family.

These are all great reasonings, I would've never guessed half of these.

I was more curious about the physical aspects but there's obviously more than just physical reasons on why there are not a lot of large families these days. Like @pp said I wonder if newer drugs, birth control, lifestyle etc contribute at all.

Obviously $$$$ is a huge reason lol. It was easier to afford 8 children when shat was so cheap!

I don't think miscarriages are more common. Lots of times in the past women had miscarriages without even realizing they were pregnant. We have tests that give results much sooner and more accurately than in years past.

you're asking PHYSICALLY why right? i know sooooo many girls who've had miscarriages. they were maybe 15, 16, 17. & i honestly think sometimes it's because of our birth control we have used, our body not being "ready" OR also the drugs they had taken prior to becoming pregnant. there are SO many newer drugs now than back in the day. it's crazy.

It's not unheard of. One of my best friends has 10 children. There are still lots of big families around my area. My family is considered small and I have 3 boys!

Money, lack of birth control, different family dynamics & religion

The cost of living has grown exponentially over the last couple decades but wages haven't gone up nearly as much. Most people can't afford a ton of children anymore

I also think that (at least the area that I grew up in) part of the thing was that they needed the kids to help with the farm. For my grandparents they owned and ran a dairy farm, pigs and did the actual bean/wheat farming as well. There is no way they could have done that all themselves and they needed their large amount of boys to help keep everything running. Now days you can survive with 1 kid, at a 9-5 job. Back then there was always so much to do and the more hands to do it the better, otherwise they may not have been able to do it all

Lmao I agree with @cinnarose!! That's how I feel I woupdnt go freakin nuts!! I'm pregnant with #4 and I was done at #3!!

I have four girls. If I had 9 kids, I would need a nice padded cell and a straight jacket! ?

No ppl just can't afford that many kids, you can have as many as you want unless you have fertility problems. We are also having kids later ppl used to start in their early 20s, many ppl now are waiting until mid 30s because of money or career or just crap luck at meeting someone. Ppl also want to enjoy their later years and dont want to be running after a toddler in their late 40s, generally. Daycare for 8 kids? Tuition? Sports? College?

Yes birth control was a huge thing my grandmother was over and I was going through old medication and she saw birth control and she was holding it up to the sky saying oh where were you when. I needed you and she started laughing she had 8 children until she couldn't have any more .

I think cost of children now and our expectations have changed for our way of life we're not simple people any more .

I have 3 with one on the way and talks of possibly 2 more people are thinking we're crazy for 4 already but it depends if you go to the forum where it's for large family's you'll still see there's a few

I'm 1 out of 11 my mom was a baby making machine my family is catholic and birth control is a big no no now that days have changed birth control isn't so frowned upon also I think we have more access to birth control. I have 3 kids actually had my tubes tide after 2 and some how I ended up getting pregnant with my 3 rd all I know me personally anything more then 2-3 kids is a lot of kids I wouldn't have anymore due to being able to afford or mentally being able to handle them . Growing up my house was mayhem and as an adult I like my calm quiet house . My friend has 5 kids all under 10 yrs old I can barely last in her house more then 20 minutes before my brain feels like it's going to explode from the noise ..

Because 'Back in the day' the tv kept breaking down. That's why they had so many children. Now a days the tv doesn't break down often because people are too busy working instead ?

Definitely no birth control. My grandma had 17 kids. Started at 15 years old and ended at 41 with my dad.

Watch call the midwife, times were hard. But then again, it was normal for men to go to work and woman to stay home, kids ran the streets without fear, no contraceptive, social norm was completely different; in certain areas if your kids slept in separate rooms you were well off as you had extra room. There was no such thing as rape within marriage, woman had no rights (in the eyes of the law, woman were always in the right ?)

I'm assuming because of the lack of birth control. I'm pretty sure these women didn't actually plan for 8+ kids.

But hell no, who wants 8 kids?! Even if I was rich, that's a lot of children! I would go crazy ?

No birth control. Married / started younger.

My aunt is pregnant with her 9th child, the eldest being 16. Somebody needs to bring her up to 2017 and give her some contraception. Or a tv. ? Kidding. My great grandma had 12 kids!

What pp's said and I think back then it was expected for women to marry young and start pooping them out. Now if a women has more than three kids she starts getting judged sadly.

ETA- damn autocorrect. Popping. Please don't poop your children out.

Just because you can, does not mean you should

I think we physically could... but most women choose not to, as we want time in our lives to do other things as well as childcare.

I think part of it is just because women don't even want that many kids anymore. I only want 2, 3 at the most. I also don't feel like I'll ever be financially stable enough to have 9 kids. Lol you'd have to be rich for that.

Cost of living. Birth control. Starting families later. Day care costs. You can't squeeze 6 kids in the back of a sedan anymore.

Physically I think we still could. Financially, it is pretty tough now days.

I think a lot of it was what pp said and then another part was children were investments as well. If you had a farm you needed bodies to help with the work. More children = more help

Women are having their first children on average at a much older age now than before. A lot of women get a full education and a career before starting a family and it leaves much less biological time to have these larger families.

Also, we have expensive lifestyles now. Families with 2-3 cars, holidays abroad yearly, ipads/smart phones/technology in general etc etc.

Its hard for most to finance a larger family and have the luxuries that we desire too.

Also, contraception is widely available so there is more control over our reproductive system!

There was no birth control. My grandma had to fight with my grandpa to get on birth control in the 1960s, when the pill was just coming out. He thought it was a sin but after 5 kids she was DONE.

My great grandma had 10 kids and lived in extreme poverty, before birth control.