I've looked into this before. Fertility rates in America did rise steadily during the Victorian era.I've heard that the people of the Victorian days were not nearly as "uptight" as we are led to believe. I've heard there was a lot of kinky stuff going down back then!!! Sexual repression and all of that!
And prostitution was legal. Actually, prostitutes were the highest paid and least subjucated women in society during that era. Many of them even owned property.