Is there a limit on how many children you will attempt to conceive?

[SurlesFace]

There is no such limit as I know of. There is a modifier that drastically reduces the chance of pregnancy for the mother every time she gives birth to a child but no hard limit in terms of children count.

Roughly speaking if the chance of having the 3rd child is 1, the chance of having the 4th child is 0.44. However do not forget as the wife ages, the chance also diminishes linearly by age, becoming 0 around ~40. If the chance of an 18-year-old wife becoming pregnant is 1. When she becomes 30 years old, this chance becomes 0.5.
Though you have to multiply the modifiers to arrive at the chance.

It is hard to have more than 3-4 children, but not impossible.

So, what you're saying is once you have 3 kids figure out a way to get your wife killed and remarry the youngest girl you can find?

 

[Koka_Kohga]

I don't have data to back it up, but I'm pretty sure the absolute max is 6 per female, but is random between 2-6. It seems if you want to maximize your kid output you should play as a male and find a non-combat oriented wife who is young (better fertility compared to older ones) and after she's had ~3 kids, which seems to be the average, have her killed then marry another wife (it's really difficult to kill them for some reason, though, even with chance at 100%). Rinse and repeat. I'm 99% sure male character's age doesn't matter for fertility.

When I play as a guy I do this, and train one kid and maybe a backup to be my heir while all the others I train in Trade so they can run caravans. It also helps if their wives have some Trade skill, then all of them can run caravans! Be sure not to marry off your daughters so they can stay as caravaneers

 

[Zerosaiko]

There's not a hard cap, but the way that children reduces your chances (1 child halves the chance, 2 children divides the chance by 9, 3 children divides the chance by 16, and so on) means that it doesn't take having many children before just getting a new wife is easier than getting another pregnancy out of the current one.

 

[Koka_Kohga]

There's not a hard cap, but the way that children reduces your chances (1 child halves the chance, 2 children divides the chance by 9, 3 children divides the chance by 16, and so on) means that it doesn't take having many children before just getting a new wife is easier than getting another pregnancy out of the current one.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the context!