Child bearing

It is a commandment that Heavenly Father gave to Adam and Eve to "Multiply and Replenish the Earth!" We are also told to do the same. I grew up in a family of seven children. I had three brothers and three sisters. My father grew up with 12 siblings. I have so many cousins on his side I don't even know. My grandma had over 90 grandchildren when she died at 85 years old. That is quite a posterity. My dad only has 24 grandchildren and there won't be anymore. All seven of his children are done having children. What a difference a generation makes. Studies show that families all around the world are choosing to have smaller families or even choosing to have no children at all. Why is this happening...some reasons are listed-

1. Decreasing economic value of Children- in the past generation infant moralities rates were higher, as well as childhood disease and poverty. In rural areas the more children you had the more help you had with farming and raising livestock. Now children tend to cost more then they help provide for a family.

2. Fear of Over Population- the world has tried to change our view with threatening limited resources for our upcoming generations.

3. Government Pressure- China and India the government has gotten involved in telling people how many children a family can have, in order to control the population. This has been an awful thing since this puts pressure on the family to only have one baby but most are determined to have a boy. Abortions are performed so frequently that in India is now against the law to find out the sex of the baby before the birth. The amount of boys vs. girls in these countries will cause problems in coming generations with not enough women to marry and have children.

4. More are choosing to remain childless- many women are choosing to not get married or have
children.

5. Widespread contraceptive use- This is the biggest factor on smaller families. Birth control has become more reliable and accessibly to many.

There are many social and economical problems this new trend will cause for future generations. We are blessed when we keep the commandments, this I know but when I think of the reasons my dad only has 24 grandchildren, the reasons behind that is not any of the ones listed above. For the majority of the decision to stop having children at 4-5 children in my family was a mental health factor or physical one. My siblings..

Brad- they have 4 children. My brother is often away for business and my sister-n-law felt 4 children was all she could mentally handle while doing the majority of the child- rearing alone.

Vicki- She was in her 30's when she got married and only has 2 children. She would have liked to have more but age and several miscarriages were a factor in not having more.

Brian- Has only 2 children due to infertility problems, would have loved to have more but left that up to the Lord.

Blake- Has 3 children, had a 24 week premature baby and fertility help to get the other 2. Would have loved to have more but again left that up to the Lord to send them.

Becky- She is the one with the most children with 5. She works full-time as a teacher and age prevents her from having more.

ME- I have 4 children, which I had all c-section. I was told to not have anymore but both my husband and I were okay with that because we felt complete and SANE still with our 4 kids.

Kim- has 4  children and health problems that also made them make the decision for them to stop as
well.

I do think that we need to council with our Heavenly Father about the decision to stop having children. This is something I wish I could say my husband and I did but we didn't. It was a decision made medically for us. Although while I was pregnant with my last I did ask Heavenly Father to send twins if there were any more since I knew that most likely it would be my last pregnancy. But I am not sure that counts.