This really does depend where you live; we paid €250/month for daycare for our child from the age of 1 upwards.
Even having a baby is very expensive in the USA, in terms of costs for the delivery, and the very very short maternity leave available to the majority of women. By contrast we had almost a year of paid leave, and paid something like €250 for a birth - which was mostly based around the cost of the room we had for a week after the delivery.
Always interesting that the birth rate continues to decline even when generous benefits are provided to parents to have children (extended paid leave, cash payment per child, etc).
Expanding low cost or free daycare is probably the best way that the state can incentivize people having children. I've also read that it serves as an effective anti-poverty measure as well.
