Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are counseled to prayerfully make decisions concerning the size of their family. Church leaders have said that the decision to have children is a personal matter between a husband and wife and God.
In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, the Church’s First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles state:
The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.
The Church Handbook of Instructions provides this counsel for Latter-day Saint couples:
It is the privilege of married couples who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for the spirit children of God, whom they are then responsible to nurture and rear. The decision as to how many children to have and when to have them is extremely intimate and private and should be left between the couple and the Lord. Church members should not judge one another in this matter.
Additional insight comes from former Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, who said:
“Much has been said…about birth control. I like to think of the positive side of the equation, of the meaning and sanctity of life, of the purpose of this estate in our eternal journey, of the need for the experiences of mortal life under the great plan of God our Father, of the joy that is to be found only where there are children in the home, of the blessings that come of good posterity. When I think of these values and see them taught and observed, then I am willing to leave the question of numbers to the man and the woman and the Lord.” (”If I Were You, What Would I do? BYU 1983-84 Fireside and Devotional Speeches, September 20, 1983, p.11.)