Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T22:49:52.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

BIRTH SEASONALITY AS A RESPONSE TO A CHANGING RURAL ENVIRONMENT (KAYES REGION, MALI)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2012

ALINE PHILIBERT ,
CAROLINE TOURIGNY ,
ALIOU COULIBALY  and
PIERRE FOURNIER
ALINE PHILIBERT
Affiliation:
Axe de Santé mondiale, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CR-CHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
CAROLINE TOURIGNY
Affiliation:
Axe de Santé mondiale, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CR-CHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ALIOU COULIBALY
Affiliation:
Axe de Santé mondiale, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CR-CHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
PIERRE FOURNIER
Affiliation:
Axe de Santé mondiale, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CR-CHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Birth seasonality responds to a variety of environmental and socio-cultural factors. The present study was carried out to quantify the trends in seasonal variation in birth rate in seven districts in the Kayes region of Mali between 2007 and 2010 and to attempt to link climatic- and agricultural-cycle-dependent factors with birth seasonality. Lagged regression analysis based on time series analysis techniques was used to investigate seasonality of births registered in health facilities and its association with climate, labour migration, agriculture workload, malaria infection and food supply. There was a clear bimodal pattern in month-to-month institutional delivery rate variation, and this seasonal pattern repeated each year over the study period. The data showed that rates of health-facility-attended deliveries were high at the end of the dry season (April–June), fell rapidly in the first half of the rainy season, rose again during the later part of the rainy season (August–October) and fell to their lowest values after the rains. The first peak observed in spring (April–June) corresponded to conception nine months earlier during the rainy season (between July and September), while the second peak observed in the third quarter of the year (August–October) corresponded with conception at the beginning of the dry season right after the harvest period (between November and January). Between these peaks was an abrupt trough in July. The findings support a causal process through which climate change influences conception/birth seasonality in two direct and indirect pathways. On one side climate change influences conception/birth seasonality from the effects on fetal loss (changes in annual rainfall leading to changes in malaria incidence) and on the other side by affecting fecundability (changes in agricultural cycles leading to changes in food production, agricultural workload and socio-cultural events, which in turn influence energy balance and sexual behaviour). Labour migration, which is closely linked with the agricultural cycle, influences sexual intercourse and thus marital fertility. Finally, the model emphasizes an ecosystemic approach to the study of birth seasonality.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , July 2013 , pp. 547 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agadjanian, V., Yabiku, S. T. & Cau, B. (2011) Men's migration and women's fertility in rural Mozambique. Demography 48, 1029–1048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Armah, F. A., Obiri, S., Yawson, D. O., Onumah, E. E., Yengoh, G. T., Afrifa, E. K.et al. (2010) Anthropogenic sources and environmentally relevant concentrations of heavy metals in surface water of a mining district in Ghana: a multivariate statistical approach. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, Toxic/Hazardous Substances & Environmental Engineering 45, 1804–1813.Google Scholar
Babinard, J. & Roberts, P. (2006) Maternal and Child Mortality Development Goals: What can the Transport Sector Do? World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Bailey, R. C., Jenike, M. R., Ellison, P. T., Bentley, G. R., Harrigan, A. M. & Peacock, N. R. (1992) The ecology of birth seasonality among agriculturalists in central Africa. Journal of Biosocial Science 24, 393–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bantje, H. F. (1988) Female stress and birth seasonality in Tanzania. Journal of Biosocial Science 20, 195–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, S., Chowdhury, A. & Leridon, H. (1986) Seasonal patterns of reproduction in Matlab, Bangladesh. Population Studies 40, 457–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, G. R., Harrigan, A. M. & Ellison, P. T. (1998) Dietary composition and ovarian function among Lese horticulturalist women of the Ituri Forest, Democratic Republic of Congo. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 52, 261–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bobak, M. & Gjonca, A. (2001) The seasonality of live birth is strongly influenced by socio-demographic factors. Human Reproduction 16, 1512–1517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronson, F. H. (1995) Seasonal variation in human reproduction: environmental factors. Quarterly Review of Biology 70, 141–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chattopadhyay, A., White, M. J. & Debpuur, C. (2006) Migrant fertility in Ghana: selection versus adaptation and disruption as causal mechanisms. Population Studies 60, 189–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Condon, R. G. & Scaglion, R. (1982) The ecology of human birth seasonality. Human Ecology 10, 495–511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CPS/DNSI (2006) Enquête Démographique et de Santé du Mali 2006 (EDSM-IV 2006). Cellule de planification et de statistiques (CPS) du Département de la Santé et la direction nationale de la statistique et de l'informatique (DNSI), Bamako, Mali; and Macro International Inc., Calverton, MD.Google Scholar
de Haan, A., Brock, K. & Coulibaly, N. (2002) Migration, livelihoods and institutions: contrasting patterns of migration in Mali. Journal of Development Studies 38, 37–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demoliates, Y. D. & Katsouyiannopoulos, V. C. (1995) Seasonality of births: changing pattern correlated with the seasonality of marriage. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 49, 110–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Desai, M., ter Kuile, F. O., Nosten, F., McGready, R., Asamoa, K., Brabin, B. & Newman, R. (2007) Epidemiology and burden of malaria in pregnancy. Lancet Infectious Diseases 7, 93–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DRS (2008) Annuaire statistique sanitaire du système local d'informations sanitaires (SILS). Direction régionale de la Santé, Bamako.Google Scholar
Ellison, P. T. (1994) Advances in human reproductive ecology. Annual Review of Anthropology 23, 255–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellison, P. T., Valeggia, C. R. & Sherry, D. S. (2005) Human birth seasonality. In Brockman, D. K. & van Schaik, C. P. (eds) Seasonality in Primates: Studies of Living and Extinct Human and Non-Human Primates. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 379–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enabudoso, E. J., Okpighe, A. C., Gharoro, E. P. & Okpere, E. E. (2011) Delivery rate in Benin City, Nigeria: are there seasonal variations? Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice 14, 129–131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, A. G. (1987) Some aspects of birth seasonality in Kenya. Social Science & Medicine 25, 793–801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fournier, P., Dumont, A., Tourigny, C., Dunkley, G. & Dramé, S. (2009) Improved access to comprehensive emergency obstetric care and its effect on institutional maternal mortality in rural Mali. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87, 30–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guagliardo, M. F. (2004) Spatial accessibility of primary care: concepts, methods and challenges. International Journal of Health Geographics 3, 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gubert, F. (2010) Do migrants insure those who stay behind? Evidence from the Kayes area (western Mali). Oxford Development Studies 30, 267–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gyllenborg, J., Skakkebaek, N. E., Nielsen, N. C., Keiding, N. & Giwercman, A. (1999) Secular and seasonal changes in semen quality among young Danish men: a statistical analysis of semen samples from 1927 donor candidates during 1977–1995. International Journal of Andrology 22, 28–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hampshire, K. & Randall, S. (2000) Pastoralists, agropastoralists and migrants: interactions between fertility and mobility in northern Burkina Faso. Population Studies 54, 247–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lam, D. A. & Miron, J. A. (1991a) Seasonality of births in human populations. Social Biology 38, 51–78.Google ScholarPubMed
Lam, D. A. & Miron, J. A. (1991b) Temperature and the seasonality of births. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 286, 73–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lam, D. A. & Miron, J. A. (1994) Global patterns of seasonal variation in human fertility. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences of the USA 709, 9–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lam, D. A. & Miron, J. A. (1996) The effects of temperature on human fertility. Demography 33, 291–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lam, D. A., Miron, J. A. & Riley, A. (1994) Modeling seasonality in fecundability, conceptions, and births. Demography 31, 321–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leslie, P. W., Campbel, K. L. & Little, M. A. (1993) Pregnancy loss in nomadic and settled women in Turkana, Kenya: a prospective study. Human Biology 65, 237–254.Google ScholarPubMed
Leslie, P. W. & Fry, P. H. (1989) Extreme seasonality of births among nomadic Turkana pastoralists. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 79, 103–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levine, R. J., Bordson, B. L., Mathew, R. M., Brown, M. H., Stanley, J. M. & Star, T. B. (1988) Deterioration of semen quality during summer in New Orleans. Fertility and Sterility 49, 900–907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Menendez, C. (1995) Malaria during pregnancy: a priority area of malaria research and control. Parasitology Today 11, 178–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moïsi, J. C., Gatakaa, H., Noor, A. M., Williams, T. N., Bauni, E., Tsofa, B.et al. (2010) Geographic access to care is not a determinant of child mortality in a rural Kenyan setting with high health facility density. BMC Public Health 10, 142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Omondi, C. O. & Ayiemba, E. H. O. (2003) Migration and fertility relationship: a case study of Kenya. African Population Studies/Étude de la Population Africaine 18, 97–113.Google Scholar
Panter-Brick, C. (1996) Proximate determinants of birth seasonality and conception failure in Nepal. Population Studies 50, 203–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pirkle, C. M., Fournier, P., Tourigny, C., Sangaré, K. & Haddad, S. (2011) Emergency obstetrical complications in a rural African setting (Kayes, Mali): the link between travel time and in-hospital maternal mortality. Maternal and Child Health Journal 15, 1081–1087.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ronsmans, C., Etard, J. F., Walraven, G., Høj, L., Dumont, A., de Bernis, L.et al. (2003) Maternal mortality and access to obstetric services in West Africa. Tropical Medicine & International Health 8, 940–948.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, D., Douglas, A. S. & Allan, T. M. (1993) Changing seasonality of birth – a possible environmental effect. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 47, 362–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schoeps, A., Gabrysch, S., Niamba, L., Sié, A. & Becher, H. (2011) The effect of distance to health-care facilities on childhood mortality in rural Burkina Faso. American Journal of Epidemiology 173, 492–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schrieder, G. & Knerr, B. (2000) Labour migration as a social security mechanism for smallholder households in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Cameroon. Oxford Development Studies 28, 223–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shulman, C. E. & Dorman, E. K. (2003) Importance and prevention of malaria in pregnancy. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 97, 30–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steketee, R. W., Nahlen, B. L., Parise, M. E. & Menendez, C. (2001) The burden of malaria in pregnancy in malaria-endemic areas. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 64 (Supplement 1–2), 28–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stolwijk, A. M., Straatman, H., Zielhuis, G. A. & Jongbloet, P. H. (1996) Seasonal variation in the time to pregnancy: avoiding bias by using the date of onset. Epidemiology 7, 156–160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tembon, A. C. (1990) Seasonality of births in the North West Province, Cameroon: implications for family planning programme. Central African Journal of Medicine 36, 90–93.Google ScholarPubMed
Thonneau, P., Bujan, L., Multigner, L. & Mieusset, R. (1998) Occupational heat exposure and male fertility: a review. Human Reproduction 13, 2122–2125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yadava, K. N. & Yadava, G. S. (1990) Socioeconomic factors and effect on fertility of husband–wife separation due to migration. Biology and Society 7, 139–144.Google ScholarPubMed