Societal pressures/responsibilities don't need to be consciously acknowledged by an individual for them to have an effect on that individuals' decision-making.
In the UK there has also been a cultural shift to regarding children as a lot of work - parents are under more pressure to do more and be perfect. That also deters people from having children.
Then there are those who argue that there are too many children so people should not have children.
There are pressures to have kids, of course, but its not clear to me that there is a net societal pressure towards having kids.
I had kids because I like having kids. Its fulfilling in a way nothing else is in most parents lives.
Maybe we eat because of social pressure, but obviously there is something deeper too.
One aspect of growing older that I eagerly can't wait for (unlike most others) is getting old enough that people will stop fucking pestering me about marriage and kids.
All those people can sincerely fuck off into their own bedrooms, pun intended.
Just about 20 years more of this noise...
While Putin feeds humans to the dogs of war, he will at the same time chide his countryfolk that they are not having enough children.
There is a softer version in the west where elders and the wealthy are 'concerned about birthrates' while at the same time squeezing their young on living costs(shelter+food).