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  • Title: The influence of infant and child mortality on fertility in selected countries of the Asian and Pacific region.
    Author: United Nations. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ESCAP. Population Division. Fertility and Family Planning Section.
    Journal: Popul Res Leads; 1985; (20):1-18. PubMed ID: 12314064.
    Abstract:
    Data from the World Fertility Survey (WFS) on 10 countries are used to measure the strength of 1 of 3 types of behavior (insurance behavior, breastfeeding and replacement behavior) influencing the relationship between infant mortality and fertility. 2 variables, the use of contraception at the time of the survey and the stated desire to stop bearing children, are cross-classified by the parity of women, whether they had experienced the death of a child, and if so, whether it was the last or an earlier child. Other tabulations measure the effect of the death of sons, as opposed to daughters, on the decision to have another child. Demographic and socioeconomic controls are introduced using multiple classification analysis. The 10 countries surveyed in the region are Bangladesh, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Results indicate that the replacement effect operated most strongly in countries such as Fiji and Korea which have relatively low fertility rates and high contraceptive practice. In countries with high mortality, e.g., Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, the effect of replacement behavior on the practice of contraception was minimal. However, where the desire to have no more children was studied, women who had lost a child were far less likely to say they wanted no more children. The direct experience of losing a child tended to make women, especially low parity women, more pronatalist. While the measurable effects of child mortality on fertility were small, the findings about attitudes were highly suggestive. They support the belief that population which are pronatalist are so in part because high mortality causes concern about the ultimate chances of the survival of their children. It is thus not difficult to believe that people insure against the deaths of their children by trying to have more children than they need. Of the 10 countries surveyed, the evidence for such insurance behavior was strongest in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. These were also the countries in which interrupted breastfeeding, owing to the deaths of children, might have had a pronounced effect on fertility. These 2 effects, the 1 biological and the other behavioral, suggest that reduction of child mortality is an important factor in reducing fertility in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
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