<i>Coitus interruptus</i>and the Control of Natural Fertility

Santow, Gigi

doi:10.1080/0032472031000148226

Cited by 99 publications

(74 citation statements)

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“…The possible deliberate deviations from natural fertility that may exist in this study are most likely due to partial sexual abstinence and withdrawal/coitus interruptus (Santow 1995). While abortion may have been practiced by a small minority of people, it is very unlikely to have occurred within marriage given associated health risks and social stigma.…”

Section: Fertility Control In 19 Th Century Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden

Kolk

2011

Eur J Population

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Fertility in 19 th century Europe before the fertility transition has been described as high, unregulated and stable; the extent of fertility control remains a controversial topic. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is evidence of deliberate birth spacing in northern Sweden prior to the onset of the fertility transition. This study analyses micro-level parish records of 9 636 women in 19 th century northern Sweden -a remote but, at the time, Mots-clés : contrôle de la fécondité, transition de la fécondité, Europe, contrôle des naissances, démographie historique, espacement des naissances

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Section: Fertility Control In 19 Th Century Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden

Kolk

2011

Eur J Population

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“…Despite this recognition, the central concern of demography with the measurement and explanation of the transition to low fertility has focused attention on family size limitation as the primary motivation for using contraception. As Santow (1995) points out, this is partly because diagnosis of fertility control by comparison with a natural standard has proved productive, whereas inferring spacing behaviour from data is difficult (though see the recent work of van Bavel (2004) and Alter (2007)). Thus, as she concisely states with reference primarily to the Princeton European Fertility Project, "once control became indistinguishable from limitation and was defined in terms of parity dependence, the absence of parity dependence came to be equated with the absence of contraception" (Santow 1995:23).…”

Section: Prevention Spacing and Postponement Of Birthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may be that the services provided reflect the preferences of the population, but they are also likely to have shaped them. On the other hand, the contraceptive confidence hypothesis states that women who lack access to reliable methods of contraception may space out their births in order to minimize the risk of overshooting their desired family size by having one or more accidental births (Keyfitz and Caswell 2005:424;Ni Bhrolcháin 1988;Santow 1995). In contrast, women who are confident that they can avoid becoming pregnant accidentally are more likely to want to have all their intended births within a restricted part of their reproductive lifespan.…”

Section: Prevention Spacing and Postponement Of Birthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Postponement and Birth Intervals

Timæus

Moultrie

2008

Population & Development Rev

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Much of the literature on fertility transition presumes that women birth control is practiced either to limit family size or to space births. This paper argues that women also use contraception to postpone pregnancy. Postponement is not synonymous with spacing. It arises when women delay their next birth for indefinite periods for reasons unrelated to the age of their youngest child, but without deciding not to have any more children. Postponement has a distinctive impact on the shape of birth interval distributions that differs from those of family size limitation, birth spacing, or a mixture of the two behaviours. Some populations, such as that in South Africa, have developed fertility regimes characterized by birth intervals far longer than can be accounted for by birth spacing. Postponement of further childbearing that eventually becomes permanent may be an important driver of the transition to lower fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. Timaeus & Moultrie 3The main immediate motivation for using contraception is obvious: it is to avoid pregnancy, or at least to reduce the risk of conception associated with sexual intercourse. In other words, contraception is used for birth control. The reasons why women and their partners may wish to avoid pregnancy and childbearing are many and varied. However, much of the demographic literature on fertility transition classifies motives for birth control into two mutually exclusive and exhaustive theoretical categories -the limitation of family size and the spacing of births.This paper suggests that a third important motive exists for using contraception. It is to postpone or delay pregnancy and giving birth. Birth postponement is not synonymous with birth spacing. It is conceptually distinct and has a different impact on birth interval distributions. Fertility regimes characterized by very long birth intervals cannot arise from spacing but can only be explained by widespread postponement of births achieved by contraceptive and other means. Postponement can have a substantial impact on aggregate fertility. In particular, it may be an important driver of fertility decline in Africa.The arguments just summarized are developed in successive sections of the paper. The first of these critically reviews the literature on fertility intentions and motivations for contraceptive use. It argues that the substantive, measurement, and programmatic concerns of demography have tended to direct researchers' attention away from careful consideration of reasons for practicing birth control other than family size limitation. While the importance of distinguishing postponement of births from spacing of births has been pointed out before, it has not become part of the commonplace wisdom of everyone studying fertility transition.The second substantive section of the paper considers birth interval distributions. It argues that the impact of contraceptive use on the duration-specific hazard of giving birth differs depending on whether contraception is being used for stopping, spacing, or post...

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“…In this process better knowledge about contraceptive methods may also have played a part. Even though most scholars seem to assume that knowledge of basic contraception through traditional methods were known to people, it remains uncertain to what extent they were used within marriage (McLaren 1990;Santow 1995;Van de Walle 2000;Van de Walle and Muhsam 1995). In any case, the distinction between readiness and ability is crucial.…”

Section: Explanations Of the Fertility Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%