Increment-decrement tables for human reproduction

SummaryThis 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.

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Regulating cinematic stories about reproduction: pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and movie censorship in the US, 1930–1958

The British Journal for the History of Science ◽

10.1017/s0007087417000814 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 50 (3) ◽

pp. 451-472 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

DAVID A. KIRBY

Keyword(s):

Biological Process ◽

Married Women ◽

Human Reproduction ◽

Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽

Production Code ◽

Biological Reality ◽

Film Studios ◽

The Us ◽

Private Matter ◽

Entertainment Value

AbstractIn the mid-twentieth century film studios sent their screenplays to Hollywood's official censorship body, the Production Code Administration (PCA), and to the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency for approval and recommendations for revision. This article examines the negotiations between filmmakers and censorship groups in order to show the stories that censors did, and did not, want told about pregnancy, childbirth and abortion, as well as how studios fought to tell their own stories about human reproduction. I find that censors considered pregnancy to be a state of grace and a holy obligation that was restricted to married women. For censors, human reproduction was not only a private matter, it was also an unpleasant biological process whose entertainment value was questionable. They worried that realistic portrayals of pregnancy and childbirth would scare young women away from pursuing motherhood. In addition, I demonstrate how filmmakers overcame censors’ strict prohibitions against abortion by utilizing ambiguity in their storytelling. Ultimately, I argue that censors believed that pregnancy and childbirth should be celebrated but not seen. But if pregnancy and childbirth were required then censors preferred mythic versions of motherhood instead of what they believed to be the sacred but horrific biological reality of human reproduction.

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On Comparison of Birth Interval Distributions

Journal of Biosocial Science ◽

10.1017/s0021932000000432 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 25-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

C. M. Suchindran ◽

J. W. Lingner

Keyword(s):

Life Table ◽

Survey Data ◽

Birth Interval ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Married Women ◽

Fertility Survey ◽

Birth Intervals ◽

Differential Fertility ◽

Black And White ◽

Income Groups

SummaryFrequently it is of interest to compare the distributions of birth intervals for two or more population subgroups. Such analysis can serve as a useful adjunct to conventional studies of differential fertility.This paper discusses several statistical tests which can be used to test differences in the distributions of the length of birth order specific intervals when these distributions are obtained using life table techniques. Since such estimates involve incomplete or arbitrarily censored intervals, conventional statistical tests are not appropriate.The tests are illustrated through application to data from the 1965 National Fertility Survey. Data on the occurrence and timing of third and fourth births are shown to be significantly different for black and white currently married women. Comparisons among income groups, however, fail to show significant differences.

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National Fertility Study: Married Women Interviewed in 1970 and 1975

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e385712004-001 ◽

1975 ◽

Author(s):

Charles Westoff ◽

◽

Norman Ryder

Keyword(s):

Married Women ◽

National Fertility Study

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Starting a Family in Aberdeen 1961–79: The Significance of Illegitimacy and Abortion

Journal of Biosocial Science ◽

10.1017/s0021932000013961 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 127-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Colin Pritchard ◽

Barbara Thompson

Keyword(s):

Age Structure ◽

Single Women ◽

Married Women ◽

Social Classes ◽

Family Building ◽

First Time

SummaryThe age structure of the population of married women resident in Aberdeen District starting a family has changed over the last two decades. Since 1970, successive populations have tended to be smaller in numbers and older. These tendencies may, in part, be accounted for by couples delaying the start of family building and the related reduction in the proportions of legitimate first births which were prenuptially conceived. Although a feature of all social classes, the later ages and longer marriage durations are class differentiated, women of the higher social classes tending to be older and to have been married longer than those of the lower social classes. The increasing proportion of first pregnancies terminated relates closely to the decline in the proportion of single women, pregnant for the first time, who marry and bear a legitimate child. Although complete comparisons for Aberdeen and Scotland are not possible, the trends with respect to legitimate first births are similar.

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Attitudes and Practice of Kuwaiti Women toward Breastfeeding

International Quarterly of Community Health Education ◽

10.2190/02y3-80af-611j-gnef ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 135-148

Author(s):

Mahmoud H. Baqi Al-Bustan

Keyword(s):

Child Development ◽

Health Education ◽

Married Women ◽

Human Reproduction ◽

Wide Gap ◽

Knowledge And Practice ◽

Duration Of Breastfeeding ◽

Breast Fed ◽

Expected Duration

A survey was conducted to assess the attitudes towards breastfeeding, its prevalence and duration among Kuwaiti married women. Five hundred eighty-five women from different regions of the country with at least one child of their own, willing to furnish data were included in the survey. The results of this study show that 71 percent of newborns are breastfed at birth. The percentage of breast-fed infants declines to 50 percent by the time they are one month old, and to 10 percent among five-month-old infants. The expected duration of breastfeeding is about two months. This study also reveals a wide gap existing between the attitudes, knowledge and practice of breastfeeding among Kuwaiti women. Their attitude towards breastfeeding is largely positive. This study emphasizes that with appropriate health education and supportive measures sensitive to the needs of this community, breastfeeding can retain its integral part in the process of human reproduction and child development.

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