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Chapter Six
SO YOU'VE
DECIDED TO HAVE
CHILDREN
T
HERE IS
no greater opportunity to share than when a
married couple decide to add to their family and have
a child.
There is also no greater family responsibility!
Having children doesn't require a great deal of expertise.
But becoming
qualified
parents does. Millions of people have
become fathers and mothers. But many of those millions do
not know how
to
be parents.
So let's talk about the awesome responsibility of becom–
ing
a
parent. Whether planning the first or fifth child, one
should know the joys and the responsibilities that accompany
the arrival of a new family member.
There is a great deal of confusion in the world today
about family planning. Because of ignorance and supersti–
tion-even erroneous religious beliefs-many do not know
whether or how to plan for children.
Then and Now
For thousands of years, as human societies developed
and populated the earth, families could have as many chil–
dren as they desired. In fact, large families were actually
desirable, since human labor was essential
to
development.
By the middle of the 1800s, world population had finally
reached 1,000,000,000. But in the next 130 years it skyrocketed