Seems to me that it would be good here to step outside of the developed world and recognize that when people have no safety net, having children is a form of social security - someone to take care of them when they are old. It has been surprising to me when Americans in the midst of a place like the slums of Mexico or in Haiti wonder why people are having so many children and assume that given birth control supplies, they would stop. Many won't.
This isn't even entirely self-centered. When people live in a highly interdependent community, as virtually every extremely poor community is, they are expected to contribute to everyone's welfare... and one of the ways you can contribute is to have children. In Haiti, we had a teenage girl who was very happy to find out she was pregnant. She said her boyfriend would be also - because they wanted to have at least one child before the next earthquake kills them. That really got to many of our team members. Nick
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