I was a Mormon until the age of 21 and I heard all that propoganda about families forever and the Mormon church being involved in family values campaigns aimed at non Mormon audiences.

I have seen some large Mormon families and it seems Mormons have a at least tweo extra children than most non mormon families.

What is the real motivation in large Mormon families?Do they want to outbreed the non mormon world so they can rise to all the positions of power to opress the non Mormon world?
Is this breeding process the reason why Mormons now claim their the 4th largest christian church in America?They breed faster and have children who have unquestioning belief in Mormonism.
They do not grow throughthe converts they make,but by breeding over generations of families.

A while back I was sent a link (since misplaced) to an academic blog that clearly answered this very question. To boil it down, before religions grew to the current size they are now the only way to expand one's tribe apart from conversion (whether forced or not) was to breed themselves new followers. That is the most fundamental answer I have found to date regarding why the Pope vilifies birth control and why the Momo's look down on members who actively limit the size of their family. It is essentially refusing to grow the population of one's 'tribe.'

Tripp

I remember being told several times that Mormons needed to have big families so that all of those spirits waiting up there in heaven would be able to come to Mormon families. You know, it's terrible to think of those innocent spirits being born into Episcopalian families.

Strange thing is, Mormons (in Utah at least) were the most to your face critical of having large families. It was like they felt threatened if you had a larger family than they did. It's very bizarre and almost seems like a competition with children and if you have more it's because you're competing or trying to prove your righteousness.

Mormons need to be castrated before they reach adulthood so the world does not become full of Mormons.

I was basically taught that we needed to bring as many spirits to earth as possible, otherwise they would be born to drug addicted mothers or in third world countries just to have the chance to get a body. In other words, bring as many children as possible to righteous households. Part of the real motivation for this "teaching" could have been political and increase their numbers, but I'm not sure. However, that is not what Mormons are actually taught.

In the end, Mormonism wouldn't be as vast as it is today if not for the larger families Mormons had in the past. This is why a good portion of the church who have Mormon roots going back generations have polygamist ancestry. Me included.

One of my sisters and her husband waited until they were married three or four years before having their first child. However, the others got pregnant pretty soon after marriage. One has taken measures to ensure that their fourth will be their last. The other is awaiting the birth of her sixth child.

The sister with five, going on six, children really worries me. She had placenta previa in her fourth pregnancy and it could have killed her. While everything is going well so far, I worry about what might happen. Most of her pregnancies have been difficult.

...showed Mormons averaging one child more than the national average.

Mormons aren't the only believers in large families (or disbelievers in contraception). Are Mormons on the high end of the scale? Yeah, but they're not alone -- or even the highest.

There are tons of cultural pressures out there that influence when and how many children a couple will have. Some are subtle, some are direct, but their success ensures the the church doesn't have to make specific rules about it.
I was taught that we made covenants with our families in the pre-existence to be together on earth. It was our responsibility to have as many babies as "HF" sent us because these were THE children that we had made covenants with. What if we used birth control and little susie never was physically conceived? I always knew that while this wasn't actually doctrine, it summed up our eternal family plan of salvation. I mean, HF would never send more children than I could care for, would he? (shudder)
My TBM sister married her RM BYU boyfriend when she was 19. In her temple recommend interview with her BYU stake pres., they were told he would deny the recommend if they planned on using birth control. Of course 10 months later they had first baby.