Why was not until recently that families in the most developed

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It's veniality and materialism.

People want to enjoy their self and their things more than they want to be saddled with raising kids.

It's actually pretty common in highly advanced, rich societies like ours.

Infanticide and abortion, due to a lack of prophylactic measures, were huge in Rome's apex

Because back in the day you had a farm or a "business" and you needed as much "free labor" as you could get.

That and child mortality was incredibly high, so having a bunch of kids is a good strategy.

>>inb4 CAPITALISM RUINED EVERYTHING BRO.
>Plz don't give me an answer that might make me feel uncomfortable.

Why would you expect most people to invest loadsamoney and thousands of hours of labor with almost zero hope of recapitalization?

It used to be that fertility was controlled by limiting marriage, in that before the present era marriage rates were low in Europe, and attendant civilizations that take their birth from Europe. Now, fertility control occurs within marriage itself.

http://oyc.yale.edu/molecular-cellular-and-developmental-biology/mcdb-150/lecture-8

http://oyc.yale.edu/molecular-cellular-and-developmental-biology/mcdb-150/lecture-9

These lectures are a bit lengthy but do an excellent job of explaining that.

Pre-modern era:
Low rates of marriage, high fertility in marriage.
Transition to modernity:
High rates of marriage, high fertility in marriage.
The modern age:
High rates of marriage, low fertility in marriage.

There are also financial aspects of course, it is very expensive to raise a child, and some nations have done relatively better at having a high birth rate than others. France's birth rate is around 2 which is near the replacement level (2.1), Germany's birth rate is around 1.4, which is... not. Most of Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as most of Eastern Asia, falls into the Germany camp.

"In our time all Greece was visited by a dearth of children and generally a decay of population, owing to which the cities were denuded of inhabitants, and a failure of productiveness resulted, though there were no long-continued wars or serious pestilences among us…. For this evil grew upon us rapidly, and without attracting attention, by our men becoming perverted to a passion for show and money and the pleasures of an idle life, and accordingly either not marrying at all, or, if they did marry, refusing to rear the children that were born, or at most one or two out of a great number, for the sake of leaving them well off or bringing them up in extravagant luxury."