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Back in the day--roughly, from the twenties back--most people had no idea how to effectively control births except to abstain. The less educated didn't even know that abstention worked. This still applies in Third World countries. I feel that at this point, Malthus' theories only apply to less educated cultures.
However, you can't tar all big families with the same brush. There's a huge difference between someone who carelessly runs around fathering or giving birth to a ton of kids who'll pretty much raise themselves- and someone who makes a careful decision before adding each child to their family, even if that family is large.
I know many other highly educated families who've chosen to have many children. Right now, I'm thinking of a doctor and a Methodist minister in town who have, as we do, very large mixed/biological families. We have chosen to cherish and educate and most of all, love, all our children. We're not like the white trash from down in the holler who procreate because they don't know any better.
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