In Denmark the number of births and induced abortions among teenagers has reduced and teenage parenthood is now rare. This paper evaluates the correlation between this observed fertility and reported sexual and contraceptive behaviour. In 1989 a sample of 16–20-year-olds in Denmark was selected at random and personally interviewed about sexual and contraceptive behaviour. Ninety-five per cent of the young women who had experienced sexual intercourse used contraception at the most recent sexual intercourse. In order to support the validity of this finding a model was developed to estimate an expected number of conceptions in the age groups concerned. The model included both the information on coital frequency and use of contraception from the questionnaire and available efficacy rates on contraception. The estimates derived by the model were compared with the registered number of births and induced abortions derived from public registers. The analysis revealed a high accordance between the estimated number of conceptions and the registered number of births and induced abortions for each age group. This underlines the validity of the data on sexual and contraceptive behaviour sampled among teenagers in Denmark. The findings indicate that contraceptive failure is a much greater problem than non-use of contraception for teenagers in Denmark.

Many studies in the last 45 years have shown that women prefer a boy to a girl for their first-born child, suggesting that this preference is universal in Western societies. A careful examination of these studies reveals, however, that the subjects were often women who were not pregnant and/or students. A review of sixteen studies with first-time-pregnant women showed that in most cases the opposite was true, namely, that a girl was desired more often than a boy, especially during the last two decades (from 1981 to 1996). Data concerning expectant fathers, however, indicate that they prefer a boy rather than a girl. A preference for a boy first was also observe for both non-expectant males and females. Women’s preference for a male child decreased and men’s preference increased slightly when the two sub-periods (before 1980 vs after 1981) were compared. A difference between men and women is, however, evident whatever the sub-period: men more often prefer a boy than women. These findings suggest that something specific about being pregnant is related to the preference for a girl first.

From 1966 to 1990 there was a marked rise in the use of voluntary sterilization in Flanders, followed by a fall in women under the age of 40. In the last three decades a remarkable change has occurred in the choice between male and female sterilization. Compared with many other European countries, sterilization of men and women is widely practised in Flanders. In 1996 40% of 40- to 44-year-old women underwent voluntarily sterilization or had voluntarily sterilized partners. Additionally, another 9% of these women were sterilized for medical reasons. Voluntarily sterilized couples are on average older than non-sterilized couples, and, obviously, consider their families to be complete. For couples with a complete family, parity is the most important predictor in the choice between sterilization and non-sterilization. Regularly practising Catholics undergo sterilization least. Also, highly educated couples are less likely to have a sterilization. Couples who ever experienced a contraceptive failure choose sterilization more. Voluntary sterilization has no substantial effect on the fertility of the population since the effect on the prevented numbers of both wanted and unwanted births appears to be small. However, if voluntary sterilization did not occur, differences in fertility within the population would probably increase. It is presumed that the popularity of voluntary sterilization in Flanders has passed its peak and that its use will decline in the near future.

The traditional proscription against sex for women during pregnancy, and particularly in the postpartum period, in south-west Nigeria leaves many men without sexual access to their wives for extended periods of time. This practice raises the question whether men abstain or seek other sexual partners. A community-based study was conducted using 3204 married men from randomly selected local government areas of the state. These men had wives who had delivered a baby in the 36 months prior to the study. Information was obtained on their sexual practices before and during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Male sexual networking was not absent outside the pregnancy and the postpartum periods. However, during pregnancy, a higher percentage of men (43·7%) had other partners compared with the period outside pregnancy and postpartum (42·1%). The difference was not significant (p>0·05). Similarly, in the postpartum abstinence period, more men (48%) had other sexual partners when compared with the period outside pregnancy and postpartum (42·1%; p<0·001). Sexual networking with non-regular and multiple partners was also more commonly observed in the postpartum period than in pregnancy (11·9% vs 10·4%; p<0·05). Significantly more rural than urban men had multiple sexual partners when their wife was pregnant (p=0·01) or in postpartum abstinence (p<0·05). Condom use with regular partners was largely absent, and consistent condom use with extramarital partners was very low among urban and rural men (6·3% vs 1·7%). The vast majority of men were having unprotected vaginal sex. Logistic regression analysis showed that polygamous men, those under 30 years in the urban area, and men with low or no education were more likely to have sex with other women when their wife was pregnant. During a wife’s postpartum abstinence period, men in higher status occupations, younger urban men (<49 years), those with more children, the polygamous, and men with a first wife under 40 years in urban area were more likely to have other partners. In light of the heterosexual mode of HIV transmission in Nigeria, there is a dire need to design and implement an intervention programme targeted at married men, which takes into consideration cultural practices. This will hopefully help check the course of the disease in a country thought to be on the verge of an HIV epidemic.

Data are reported on the relationship between cigarette smoking and other health-related behaviours and time to conception in a population-based sample of women who acted as a control group in a case-control study of twinning. Women who continued to smoke close to the time of conception took significantly longer to become pregnant than women who never smoked or stopped smoking before the year during which they attempted to conceive. A hierarchical regression analysis performed on time-to-conception data in women who continued to smoke in the year before conception provided weak evidence for a dose–response relationship between time to conception and number of cigarettes smoked per day. No significant relationships were found between time to conception and other health-related behaviours.

The duration of lactational amenorrhoea, and infant feeding patterns and behaviour, were investigated in a sample of 97 mother–infant pairs living in a poor urban area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A seven-hour time allocation method was used to determine the number of breast-feeding bouts and their duration. The seven-hour observation period was conducted on five occasions: at birth, 1 month, 4 months, 8 months and either 10 or 11 months. The median duration of lactational amenorrhoea was determined to be 24·07 weeks using survival analysis. Mothers who breast-fed their babies for longer and more frequently had, on average, a longer period of lactational amenorrhoea. There was no relationship between sociodemographic characteristics of the mother and duration of lactational amenorrhoea, nor was there any significant relationship between maternal anthropometry and birth weight of the baby and duration of lactational amenorrhoea, but there was a tendency for women with lower body mass index to have longer durations. Using the Cox proportional hazards model, the best predictor of duration of lactational amenorrhoea was the mean of months 0 and 1 durations of breast-feeding, adjusted for the mean frequencies for those months. The introduction of weaning food was also an important predictor.

After the onset of liberlization of the Mongolian economy in 1989, the laws governing abortion were relaxed. Furthermore, the availability and use of modern contraceptives also started to improve. The Demographic Survey of Mongolia, conducted during June–July 1996, collected information on different aspects of abortion. This paper presents the results on the prevalence of induced abortion and other related issues. It was found that in the absence of adequate knowledge and availability of modern contraceptives in Mongolia, the prevalence of induced abortion was relatively high. About 24% of women undergoing abortion were using it as a contraceptive because they thought it to be a safe method of contraception. Though the abortion rules stipulate counselling on the use of modern contraceptives just after an abortion, only 60% of women undergoing an abortion were given such counselling.

This study, conducted on the Kenyan coast, assesses the effect of intra-household relations on maternal treatment-seeking. Rural and urban Mijikenda mothers’ responses to childhood fevers in the last 2 weeks (n=317), and to childhood convulsions in the previous year (n=43), were documented through survey work. The intra-household relations and decision-making dynamics surrounding maternal responses were explored through in-depth individual and group interviews, primarily with women (n=223). Responses to convulsions were more likely than responses to fevers to include a healer consultation (p<0·0001), and less likely to include the purchase of over-the-counter medications (p<0·0001). Mothers received financial or advisory assistance from others in 71% (n=236) of actions taken outside the household in response to fevers. In-depth interviews suggested that general agreement on appropriate therapy results in relatively few intra-household conflicts over the treatment of fevers. Disputes over perceived cause and appropriate therapy of convulsions, however, highlighted the importance of age, gender and relationship to household head in intra-household relations and treatment decision-making. Although mothers’ treatment-seeking preferences are often circumscribed by these relations, a number of strategies can be drawn upon to circumvent ‘inappropriate’ decisions, sometimes with implications for future household responses to similar syndromes. The findings highlight the complexity of intra-household relations and treatment decision-making dynamics. Tentative implications for interventions aimed at improving the home management of malaria, and for further research, are presented.

Time spent on subsistence activities was compared between rural sedentes and urban migrants of the Huli population in Papua New Guinea. Person-day observation data were collected for rural sedentes (441) in the Tari basin and for urban migrants in Port Moresby (175). The time spent on subsistence activities by males was longer in the urban area than in rural areas, while that by females was similar in both areas. Conspicuous gender inequality with respect to labour hours in rural areas seems to diminish when people move to urban areas, reflecting the different subsistence regime between rural and urban environments.