There was a feeling which may have helped enthusiasm in the First World War, that there was vast overbreeding.
There are accounts of well-heeled Brits going to the east end of London and worrying over the undersized people there and hoping they didn't breed. (I'm pretty sure this referred to white Londoners, Cockneys).
in Nancy Harrison's Winnia Mandela: Mother of a Nation is an account of Winifred's childhood. The family was so huge that she didn't know there were people with any other surname.
In Chaim Weizmann's Trial and Error: Autobiography (1950-ish) in an account of childhood in the 'Pale' - it reminded me of the Mandela book, as the 'Jewish' families all seemed to have been enormous.