ABSTRACT
The deliberate limitation of family size was one of the principal contributions of middle-class women to the modernization process of women generally. This decision flowed not only from the new definitions of childhood and motherhood; it represented the only means available in the mid-nineteenth century of resolving several key problems arising from the new situation and new consciousness of women. As manager of the household the middle-class woman, confronted with limited means, was acutely aware of the expenses involved in maintaining her children in the new fashion. Also birth control was the most practical means of coping with the unresolved problems of maternal mortality.
