Death Does It For You..... Family Size

"But don't you see?" Kazadi had said, averting his eyes from mine. "The children die."
The words had pricked me, and I had averted my eyes too.
Yes, the children die. In all my years prior to going to Africa, I attended a total of four funerals. In two years in Kalambayi I attended, at least briefly, close to two hundred. Three-quarters of them were for children. I estimated that one third of all the sons and daughters in the area died before the age of five. Some farmers I worked with had lost five or six kids

Still, nothing brought this ghastly reality home to me more than Miteo's condition. I needed him and cared for him, and now he was dying. Watching his body wither away, I understood I never had before the deep fear shared by parents in Kalambayi. There were many reasons why parents refused to limit family sizes, but the biggest was the fear that death would do it for them."
(Mike Tidwell. The Ponds of Kalambayi. Pg 174)