Birth Rates in Western Civilization

Vatican City has 4.63 births per 1,000 people per year. The next lowest are Hong Kong (5.43 births), South Korea (5.62), Ukraine (5.75), San Marino (5.92), and Japan (6.65).

There are many reasons why women choose not to have children: a slow economy, dearth of jobs, the costs of raising a child, people choosing to further their careers over a family, older average ages for first-time moms, and the desire to travel and sow one’s wild oats while they are still young.

Governments have given incentives to couples to marry in many forms, i.e. down payment on homes, free childcare, starting motherhood financial packages, baby bonds, free maternity care, free hospital care, and tax deductions per child.

Other countries that face overpopulation with problems such as overcrowding, poverty, and overwhelmed health care, low life expectancy, and low education levels. In such cases the government may pass laws to forbid having more than one child or give incentives to couples to have less children.

Because we have free or inexpensive contraception in the western societies and “planned parenthood” which engages in abortions, the replacement population rate is quite low.

The population replacement level is 2.1 children per family. U.S., U.K., and France have a replacement level of 1.5-1.6 babies per family, below replacement value. Perhaps with all the illegals who come here for birth tourism, the birth rate may be slightly higher than the 1.5-1.6 replacement value. Chad and Somalia have the highest replacement value of 5.9 children per family. Which countries have fertility rates above or below the “replacement level”? | Our World in Data

People have more babies in countries where the mortality rate is high, or agriculture is a principal industry. Planning a family there rarely involves any contraception and religious beliefs play an important role as well.

The earliest known document on contraception was found on an Egyptian papyrus from 1850 B.C. which described a concoction made of crocodile dung inserted into the vagina. Strangely, sometimes it worked. The function of the sperm was not discovered until the 17th century A.D. Other birth control methods included sticky suppositories made of various strange substances, elephant dung, Egyptian recommendations on a papyrus to drink potions, irrigation with drugs, douching with wine and garlic, and even instructions how to bring about abortions.

Besides the added cost of feeding another mouth when resources were scarce, a papyrus revealed that Egyptian women were worried about the physical results of having multiple pregnancies. The Greeks even used olive oil as a form of contraception by reducing motility of the sperm. The Ebers papyrus from the 16^th century B.C. advised women to use acacia extract and honey as contraception. Interestingly, the mixture contains lactic acid which is considered today a conception-inhibitor.

The Greeks and the Classical Age were in favor of population control via various methods.

Plato and Aristotle “advocated limiting the size of families by contraception, abortion, and unwanted infants’ exposure.”

Hippocrates, the 5^th century B.C., father of Greek medicine, invented an intra-uterine device composed of a lead tube filled with mutton fat, partially introduced via the cervix into the uterus. The foreign body, IUD, prevented pregnancies.

In antiquity both Romans and Greeks desired to control the size of their families. In the 2^nd century A.D., Actios, a gynecologist of Amida (now modern Turkey) proposed the use of washing the male’s member with brine or vinegar, both highly spermicidal.

Believers of the Old and New Testament, ancient Hebrews and early Christians, believed that it was their religious duty to propagate the human species and intercourse was reserved for such duty.

It was not until 1843 that the cellular union of egg and sperm was understood. Surprisingly the ancient, without the benefit of a microscope used methods and “devices” to control the size of their families.

There are many fascinating theories of the ancients and tribal peoples as to how humans are formed. The Hindus blamed the ibis; the Japanese the butterfly and the crane; American Indians the red spoonbill; ancient Teutonic tribes blamed the stork, hence the fairy tale that the stork delivers the babies; Trobriand Islanders believed that children came from the spirit world; Papua and New Guinea believed the eels impregnated women. To avoid pregnancy women had to stay away from such creatures. Some women even wore charms to protect them from unwanted pregnancies and problems in childbirth.

We must remember that civilization is made strong by its people. With a dwindling population, countries become weak and open targets to invasions by others. Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. because the Visigoths wanted what the Romans had, they did not want to become Romans at all. King Alaric captured and plundered the city. The world was in shock. Rome never recovered; the western empire fell in 476 A.D.