Fertility variation in Japanese agricultural immigrant women in Bolivia is examined by birth cohort, educational status, religious affiliation, the agricultural system of their households, and prefectural origin in Japan. Only the place of origin in Japan makes a singnificant contribution to variations in fertiligy; higher fertility was found among the women from the Nagasaki prefecture. The results suggest that fertility differentials in this community represent the survival of different fertility norms from the area of origin, which are not due to educational and religious differences.

The relationship between abortion experience and contraceptive practice is examined among women having a first or repeat induced abortion at the same clinic(n=443 in each group). A previous abortion was the single most important predictor of past contraceptive practices and of contraception at the conception of the pregnancy being terminated. A previous abortion was associated with greater use of all methods of contraception among women not on welfare (P < 0·001). During the 18–month study the proportion of patients who had had previous abortions rose from 13·3% to 21·1%, and those undergoing repeat abortions appeared increasingly likely to be on welfare. Contraceptive practies did not change over time except for women on welfare having repeat abortions who became less likely to have used contraception at the time of conception (p < 0·05). While the experience of abortion is generally associated with improved contraceptive practice, many women in this population, particularly those on welfare, appear to remain exposed to unprotected coitus and subsequent repeat abortion.

Because of the widely held view that a family size of less than two children is undesirable, this paper investigates the extent to which medical conditions occur among one-child and childless families and influence ultimate family size. A partial solution to the inability to have more than one child is adoption, and the extent to which couples use adoption to attain the desired family size is discussed.

Regardless of whether or not family size is directly affected, medical factors represent a form of crisis in the lives of women concerned, and thus the incidence rates themselves are of interest. The data suggest that more than one-half of women in Australia experience such a crisis during their childbearing history.

Reported age at first coitus was shown to be associated with incidence and degree of infertility. Infertility patients reported later first coital ages than gynaecological patients in a sample of 792 women seen in a major infertility service. Among the infertility patients, those who had never conceived presented a later first coital age than those who had previously conceived. Routine gynaecological patients reported the youngest first coital age of the groups studied.

The human menstrual cycle is characterized by a series of dynamic hormonal relationships that result in the regular maturation of ovarian follicles, ovulation and corpus luteum formation. As methodology has changed and improved, it has become possible to examine these events in greater detail. The simple analysis of menstrual cycle length, when done with care in a large number of women over long time spans, has revealed much about the fundamental biological rhythm of the menstrual cycle. Of particular interest are the predictable changes in cycle length and variability that occur at different stages of reproductive life (Treloar et al., 1967; Vollman, 1977). Basal body temperature records add another dimension to the analyses of menstrual cycle length because they permit estimation of the length of the pre- and post-ovulatory phases of the menstrual cycle and provide some index of the integrity of corpus luteum function.

Data from an urban sample of American women of reproductive ages demonstrate that age at menarche is correlated with age at first intercourse, that age at first intercourse is correlated with age at first pregnancy, and that age at menarche is therefore correlated with age at first pregnancy. This applies to both blacks and whites when examined for the early years of the reproductive cycle. Girls with early menarche, compared to those with late menarche, are more than twice as likely to have had intercourse by age 16, and almost twice as likely to have given birth or had a pregnancy terminated by age 18. It is therefore useful to think of the timing of meanarche as an indicator of the probability of early intercourse and early childbearing.

Urine was collected at weekly intervals at weekly intervals for three or more months from 139 menstruant women aged 40–55 years. Menstrual cycles were classed as ovulatory if the 24-hr pregnanediol output was > 5 μmol on a single occasion, or if the total excreted on 2 days 1 week apart was > 7 μmol. Of the 81 women who reported no change in menstrual frequency, 95% ovulated in every cycle. Only 34% of the 53 with a recent history of oligomenorrhoea ovulated without fail. Ovalation occurred in 93% of all 21–35-day menstrual cycles, in 55% of 36–50-day cycles, in 40% of 51–75-day cycles and in 17% of those lasting > 76 days. Pregnanediol increases suggestive of ovulation and followed by menstruation were observed on 31 occasions after amenorrhoea of from 2 to 6 months' duration.

A postal questionnaire was sent out in September 1977 to all women aged between 40 and 60 years in Ede, the Netherlands. The design of the study was similar to that used by Jaszmann et al. in 1967 in the same locality. The response rate was 66·6%. Data were analysed using theprobit analysis, a segmentation analysis and by applying chi-squared tests to cross tabulations. The median age at menopause was 51·7 years, 3 months later than in 1967. When, however, women who were taking oral contraceptives at the time of the survey were excluded the median age at menopause was found to be virtually the same as 10 years previously. The effect of factors associated with early or late menopause was studied. The results are discussed. The concept of a secular trend is briefly commented upon.

This article considers the birth control experience of 800 patients for abortion in the United States and makes comparison with British data. The results uncover some cultural factors associated with non-use of contraception. Some suggestions are made as to social changes that would be desirable to reduce the abortion rate.

Consideration is given to the impact of the change in the Abortion Laws in 1968 on the national stillbirth rate. From investigation of the demographic characteristics of women having abortions it appears that abortions accounted for at least 26% of the fall in the stillbirth rate from 1969 to 1974.

This paper examines the official abortion statistics for South Australia since the legalization of abortion in January 1970. The incidence of abortion is shown to be increasing steadily—in 1976 more than half of the extramarital pregnancies were terminated and the overall ratio of abortions to live births was nearly 1:6. Most abortion patients were single, young women. Comparison of fertility levels in South Australia with the rest of Australia shows that the fertility decline has been much more rapid in South Australia, suggesting that unless the South Australian women are more efficient users of contraception than other Australian women, a significant proportion of the fertility decline in South Australia has to be attributed to legalized abortion.

This paper discusses some of the things that demographers know about fertility at later ages of reproduction in developed countries. The nature of the information available through, for example, vital statistics is often a product of history and of administrative requirements, rather than the result of a well-based scheme. Surveys are frequently used to fill the gaps in major sources, but no survey appears to have been carried out specifically on the topic under discussion here. The available information will be discussed under four broad headings: (1) the levels and the trends of late fertility, as compared with fertility at younger ages; (2) the specific characteristics of mothers giving birth at later ages; (3) the specific characteristics of the corresponding births, and the risks for pregnancies at older ages; (4) the question of whether these births are less wanted than others.

This paper illustrates the application of increment—decrement life table methods to the study of family building patterns among women. Here age at the oocurrence of a specified birth is considered the principal duration variable. Data from a sample of currently married women from the 1965 US National Fertility Study were used to illustrate the method.

Data from interviews with 131 women who had a live birth and 109 who had a stillbirth about their experience of childbearing have been compared with information obtained from doctors.

For the live births medical information was more often obtained for those in teaching than in non-teaching hospitals. It is estimated that 84% of miscarriages, abortions and stillbirths were reported by women whereas 62% were recorded accessibly in the notes. Nerves and depression during pregnancy were reported much more frequently by the women than by the doctors.

Correlations over gestation were around 0·8. Concordance was greater over induction than over acceleration; it was high in relation to epidural anaesthesia and less good for other types of anaesthetic. Among the live births, reports of the baby's weight fell in the same half-pound group in 82% of instances and within adjoining groups for a further 12%. There appeared to be a tendency for mothers to report a slightly higher weight. In general agreement was less good for the stillbirths than for the live births.

Probable reasons for the discrepancies are discussed. Problems of precise definition, inaccuracies and inadequacies in the medical records and limitations of women's knowledge appeared to be the main sources of disparities.

A survey of 1056 married women living in rural areas of Sarawak showed that 86% of them of had knowledge of family planning and 85% expressed a favourable attitude towards it. Of the total sample, 46% were using some form of contraception; the pill was the most popular method and was used by 76% of the women practising contraception. The present average family size in rural sarawak is 5·3 and greater family planning programme effort will be needed if this is to be reduced, especially in view of the social and cultural factors involved and the generally low educational standard of the women

The distribution of phenotypes in the tongue-rolling polymorphism in two samples of university undergraduates, totalling 1066 individuals, shows no difference between the sexes but large differences between groups drawn from different faculties and particularly between the life sciences and the arts. There are also indications of a difference in distribution between arts students living in halls of residence and those living elsewhere.

The genetics of tongue-rolling is not yet critically established but, on the assumption that most of the phenotypic variation observed has a genetic basis, the data suggest that the loci governing this character may also contribute to variation in personality characteristics which influence choice of subject of study.

A study of 2447 patients treated for incomplete abortion in three major hospitals in Khartoum, the Sudan, was carried out from 1974 to 1976. Analysis focused particularly on socio-demographic variables, reproductive history and contraceptive behaviour before and after the abortion. This paper presents the epidemiological analysis and reproductive characteristics of these patients in an attempt to show the value of such service oriented research in evaluating clinical problems.

This paper focuses upon the social factors regulating sexual behaviour and fertility in the later years of the female reproductive period. Information from India, Africa and Europe is presented on traditional beliefs and constraints concerning the cessation of procreation and the modification of sexual relations in middle age. Data showing the diversity of attitudes and practices in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the USA and Australia are discussed. Findings are that, in all the areas examined, coital frequency declines with advancing age although the timing and extent of the decline varies. However, the extent to which procreation is expected to cease prior to the onset of biological infecundity varies markedly even between neighbouring cultures at the same level of development. In Western cultures, for personal reasons, wives expect that childbearing should cease well before the onset of infecundity and can state an exact age at which this should occur. In those African and Asian cultures where there is a social limit to continued reproduction, this is most commonly defined in terms of a life-cycle stage attained by the family as a whole; chronological age is rarely of any importance.

Fertility trends for Korean populations in Japan and Korea and for Japanese have been examinated, with special reference to the Fire-Horse or White-Horse year, 1966.

Koreans in Japan and the Japanese showed a remarkable drop in crude birth rates and a sharp increase in stillbirth rates in 1966, while Koreans in Korea showed only a steady decline in crude birth rate.

It was concluded that the Japanese folk superstition of Hinoe-Uma influenced the crude birth rates and stillbirth rates of both Japanese and Koreans in Japan 1966 and that the fertility behaviour of these Koreans had come to resemble that of the Japanese through the effect of environment factors in Japanese society.

Data from a survey of 349 fertile married women are used to examine the significance of cultural context for contraceptive behaviour in a traditional Indian village. While sterilization was widely sanctioned, other methods were little known, favoured or used. Relationship with modernization indicators also varied for different contraceptive techniques.

Traditional respondents were as favourable towards sterilization as modern women, but modern women were significantly more likely to accept other methods. These results are attributed to differential government efforts which have placed almost exclusive emphasis upon sterilization. It is argued that an expanded family planning programme would overcome the inertia of tradition concerning non-terminal contraception.