The association between breast-feeding patterns and resumption of menses post-partum was examined in a longitudinal study initiated in March 1976 in Bangladesh. Information on suckling patterns and menstrual status was collected on 148 breast-feeding women who were still amenorrhoeic at 17–25 months post-partum at the beginning of the study. Suckling was measured during an 8-hr period once a month for up to 19 months of follow-up.

A high frequency of suckling was found, even at this late post-partum duration. Total suckling time and the number of suckling episodes declined with the age of the child but the mean duration of each episode did not change. The fact that regression analyses did not show a correlation between suckling patterns and return of menses post-partum may be related to the large individual variations in suckling patterns and in the duration of amenorrhoea in this population, and the need to study suckling patterns for longer than 8 hr per day.

In data from the Sri Lanka Fertility Survey, 1975, the cessation of childbearing is examined among women who have never used contraception. They tend to cease childbearing relatively early, and therefore are infertile for longer periods during their marriages. It is probably age of the first child that influences decisions on future fertility.

The paper examines the pattern of breast-feeding among women still in their prime childbearing ages (15–35 years) in Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara state in Nigeria. While breast-feeding is still a common practice among urban women, there is wide variation in the duration of breast-feeding depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of the mothers. Mother's education and father's education have very strong negative associations with duration of breast-feeding. Use of contraception also has a significant independent but negative effect on breast-feeding duration. Christians continue breast-feeding for shorter periods than Muslims. The introduction of supplementary feeding to the infant occurs in this population much earlier than is recommended by various authorities. The dangers inherent in this pattern of infant feeding are discussed.

This study was carried out in four adjacent villages in Lower Egypt with a combined population of 24,000. A team of social workers and physicians worked together to introduce the injectable contraceptive depomedroxyprogesterone acetate as a post-partum long-acting contraceptive to the community leaders and the villagers at several meetings. Postpartum women who agreed to use the drug were defined as acceptors (591) and those who did not were defined as rejectors (715). The incidence of polygamy was higher among the rejectors, and rejectors' husbands had more children from their other wives. Acceptors had more previous pregnancies and children of both sexes than rejectors. The interval between the last two pregnancies was shorter among the rejectors. A greater percentage of acceptors had previously used another contraceptive. The commonest reasons for rejection were desire for further pregnancy (69%), health problems (11%) and desire for another method of contraception (8%). Religious factors figured in only 3% of cases.

In January 1985, a Gallup poll sponsored by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists reported that 76% of the US women sampled thought that there were substantial risks with using the pill, 31% thought the pill caused cancer and 64% thought the risk of childbearing was equal to or less than that in taking the pill. To assess the perceptions of the pill's safety internationally, a survey of 100–150 urban, middle-class women aged 18–45 years was conducted in each of eight countries in the developing world. There were striking similarities in perceptions of the pill's health effects between countries: (1) taking the pill is considered to have substantial health risks by 50–75% and is thought to be more hazardous than childbearing by over 40% of respondents except those in the African samples; (2) women who had used the pill are as unaware as those who had not of possible serious cardiovascular adverse effects; (3) the protective effects of the pill are virtually unknown; (4) the greatest inconsistency with scientific evidence concerns the risks of sterility and birth defects attributed to pill use. With information from this survey, family planning programmes can rectify almost universal misperceptions of the pill's safety when counselling new and continuing pill users.

Differentials in variables concerned with the timing, number, and distribution of fertility by a wide range of socioeconomic, attitudinal, inherited and housing characteristics from the British Family Formation Survey are reported. Variables associated with the couple's housing history and the wife's employment career are becoming more strongly associated with demographic differentials among younger cohorts than traditionally-based ones such as religion or region of residence. Cluster analysis techniques show which groups of family formation variables are strongly associated with particular types of non-demographic ones, and a natural grouping of explanatory variables is derived. The implications of these conclusions for data collection in demographic surveys are discussed.

Growth and psychological data for 74 participants in the Fels Longitudinal Study are analysed to determine the influence of the relative timing of maturation upon psychological attributes related to interests, abilities, self-confidence, peer relationships, and future goals. It is suggested that neither age at peak height velocity for either sex, nor age of menarche for girls, represents an adequate measurement of relative maturity status. A new variable that can be used for both sexes, relative maturity, is suggested and computed using peak height velocity as well as the additional information gained from the percentage of adult stature achieved at that time.

Results of separate significance tests using peak height velocity and relative maturity as independent variables reveal early maturers to be more self-confident in specific abilities and also more gregarious during adolescence with higher educational and vocational expectations for the future, while the later maturer is less likely to be influenced by his peers and to have less ambitious long-range goals.

This paper examines the degree to which childlessness is influenced by levels of modernization among the governorates of the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 1976, the higher the levels of modernization, the lower the rates of childlessness among women aged 30 and over, and the higher the rates of childlessness among women aged 20–30. The implications of these results for fertility and development are discussed.

High levels of fertility in rural areas of many developing societies are an issue of considerable concern to the scientific community and to those interested in public policy. This paper reports on the determinants of fertility in two rural areas in Egypt: Menoufia and Beni-Suef governorates. There are important differences in fertility between the two areas; the total fertility rate is 7·88 in Beni-Suef and 6·03 in Menoufia. These aggregate differences are the result of even larger differences between the two areas in the proximate determinants of fertility, particularly age at marriage, breast-feeding and contraceptive use. Much of the difference in breast-feeding behaviour can be explained by differences in the educational composition of the two populations; the level of female education in Menoufia is considerably higher than in Beni-Suef. However, differences in contraceptive use cannot be explained by differences in the socioeconomic composition of the two populations. The differences may be the result of greater institutional support for contraceptive use and lower fertility in Menoufia, where intensive family planning and maternal health programmes have been in operation for several years.

Contraceptive choice in the first 1075 acceptors at an urban clinic in Lagos has been studied. An IUD was the most popular choice followed by the injectable contraceptive and the pill. Interval tubal ligation was chosen by some patients. Acceptors of injectables were older women of high parity and lower educational standard while pill acceptors were of lower parity and higher educational level. The IUD was acceptable to all ages and parities except those with only one child or none.

Loss to follow-up and the wish to plan another pregnancy were the commonest reasons for discontinuing contraception. Medical reasons for discontinuing the IUD were pain, menstrual disorder, accidental pregnancy and expulsion/perforation, and for discontinuing injectables the reasons were menstrual disorder, accidental pregnancy and raised blood pressure.

This paper examines the level and trend of fertility in Huaibei Plain, Anhui province, China, since 1950 and considers some determinants of fertility decline. The data used are from the 1/1000 survey of China which was conducted by the Family Planning Commission in 1982.

Fertility decline among younger women (aged under 30) is largely due to later age at marriage, the marriage pattern of Huaibei Plain having changed from early and universal marriage to later and universal marriage. Current use of contraception suggests that the family planning programme, in particular the one-child policy (1979), has been the major determinant in fertility decline. The greatest decline in marital fertility occurred among women aged 35+ and is primarily due to contraceptive practice and induced abortion.

The effect of educational activities, distance from a genetic centre, and presence of satellite clinics on the growth in genetic services in three regions served (south Alabama, west Florida and southeast Mississippi) was examined. Comparisons of growth trends between the three regions were made in the context of regional differences in clinical and educational variables. Multiple regression analyses of growth in clinical services with these variables were also performed. Results demonstrated that growth in clinical services is greatly enhanced when educational activities are offered in concert with the establishment of a satellite clinic.

In a medieval population of Stockholm only three cases of maternal deaths were proved out of 330 burials of adult females, and only in one of the cases was a contracted pelvis found. However, life table analysis indicates a shorter life expectancy of females in the reproductive ages. This suggests a higher maternal mortality in the Middle Ages than in the 18th and 19th centuries in Sweden.

A survey of consanguineous marriages in Japan was conducted in September 1983 using questionnaires. The number of couples studied was 9225, chosen from six widely different areas of Japan. Recommendation by parents or relatives was the most frequent reason for consanguineous marriage, for both husbands and wives, followed by knowledge of the partner by relatives.

The rate of consanguineous marriage on the recommendation of parents or relatives was higher in endogamy, arranged marriages, childhood friends, and groups in which there is external pressure for marriage. It was lower in love match marriages, school, workplace and social gatherings that give opportunities for meeting, and where there was personal marital motivation.

Findings are reported on 100 couples who had requested donor insemination as a means of circumventing male infertility. Twelve couples dropped out, but the remainder were graded for personal acceptability. Forty-six couples were recommended with only minor reservations if any, 40 were seen as unsatisfactory in varying degree, and two were rejected owing to gross marital and sexual problems. In one couple, early marital breakdown after childbirth occurred.

A strong sense of mutual commitment may be the norm in such couples but exchange of affection between partners, as measured by the Ryle marital patterns test, was less vivid than in an earlier study of childless couples waiting to adopt. The infertile husband may be in particular need of emotional support from his wife, and a careful appraisal of the marriage seems warranted before treatment.

The effects of marriage, contraception and post-partum lactational infecundability on fertility in Bangladesh are assessed by applying Bongaarts' formula to survey data for the period 1975–85.

Marriage is universal and age at marriage is low. Breast-feeding is prolonged and has a pronounced effect on fertility. The fertility-reducing effect of contraception increased over the period through increased use of modern methods. The TFR declined by 24% from 1975 to 1985.

Many studies have suggested that following the experience of ‘stressful’ life events the risks of accidents, myocardial infarctions and other diseases are elevated. In the OPCS Longitudinal Study, routinely collected data on deaths, and deaths of a spouse occurring in a 1% sample of the population of England and Wales in the period 1971–81 are linked together, and with 1971 Census records of sample members. The timing and patterns of death following the very stressful event of conjugal bereavement may thus be analysed.

Overall the mortality of widowers was about 10% in excess of that in all males in the sample whereas that of widows was only slightly raised. Some increases in death rates shortly after widow(er)hood are observed. Unusually, these increases in all-cause mortality rates are more marked in widows than in widowers, with a two-fold increase in mortality from all causes in the first month after widowhood. Marked peaks of post-bereavement mortality from accidents and violent causes are clear in both sexes. Possible explanations for the increased mortality rates are examined.

Bongaarts' aggregate model of the proximate determinants of fertility is applied to data from the 1976 National Fertility Survey in Nepal. Breast-feeding is shown to be the most important limiting factor, resulting in a reduction of about six children per woman. Decline in the duration of breast-feeding by one-fourth would increase fertility by one additional child per woman. The temporary separation of spouses due to migration is conjectured to be the second most important fertility inhibiting factor, not explicitly accounted for in the standard model. Results are presented for the three major ecological regions, urban-rural residence and educational attainment of the women.

This study investigates the effect of son preference on contraceptive use and desire for additional children using national level survey data from Bangladesh for the years 1969 and 1979. Son preference had a negative effect on contraceptive use and a positive effect on the desire for additional children regardless of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. This adverse effect of son preference on fertility regulation seemed to have persisted over the years. Relevant socioeconomic conditions in Bangladesh are described.