Stop! Go! What Can We Learn About Family Planning From Birth Timing in Settler South Africa, 1835–1950?

Abstract

We revisit the discussion on family limitation through stopping and spacing behavior before and during the fertility transition with a sample of 12,800 settler women's birth histories in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Africa. Using cure models that allow us to separate those who stop childbearing from those who continue, we find no evidence of parity-specific spacing before the transition. We do find evidence of non-parity-based birth postponement before the transition. Increased stopping and parity-independent postponement characterized the beginning of the fertility transition, with increased parity-specific spacing following later in the transition phase.

Lewensomstandighede van slawe in die Boland (Wes-Kaap), 1816 tot 1834: ’n herevaluering van bestaande beskouings aan die hand van die Boland-slawedatabasis

“…Hierdie waarneming word deur die Retief-geslagsregister ondersteun (Retief 1971:6, 7). Met die eerste oogopslag op die slaweregister kry die leser die indruk dat daar, soos by wit Suid-Afrikaanse vroue tussen 1800 en 1824 (Cilliers en Mariotti 2019), rofweg elke twee jaar 'n kind gebore is. Dit is totdat daar indringend na die spesifieke geboortedatums gekyk word om te bepaal hoeveel maande werklik tussen geboortes verloop het.…”

“…In 'n verbandhoudende ondersoek(Cilliers en Mariotti 2019) met teikengroep wit Suid-Afrikaanse vroue aan die begin van die 19de eeu is die gemiddelde ouderdom by 'n eerste geboorte 20,91 jaar teenoor die 24,2 jaar by Bolandse slavinne. Slavinne jonger as 20 jaar se kans dat die eersteling binne die eerste jaar sou sterf, is volgens hom 34,6%; by slavinne ouer as 20 jaar daal die kanse tot 22,2%.Volgens die gekose groep van 214 Bolandse slavinne het die eerstelinge wat gesterf het, 29% van die totaal uitgemaak.…”

The South African Families Database

“…While previous research used portions of these data (Cilliers & Fourie 2012;Gouws, 1987) this was the first paper to use the full SAF database to date the onset of the South African fertility transition, which was found to have begun in the late 1870s to women born in the 1850s. Cilliers and Mariotti (2021) take further advantage of the longitudinal nature of the database to revisit the discussion on family limitation through stopping and spacing behavior prior to and during the fertility transition. Using split population estimation (cure models), the study finds that physiology and fecundity were the main determinants of both stopping and spacing behaviour prior to the fertility transition.…”

Childbearing Trajectories in a West African Setting: A Sequence Analysis Approach

“…Despite this more flex i ble method, it remained dif fi cult to dis en tan gle spac ing and stop ping. Subsequently, Alter (2007Alter ( , 2016 and Cilliers and Mariotti (2021) applied the cure model to sep a rately mea sure spac ing and stop ping and their asso ci ated fac tors in one model. In an impres sive study using sur vival anal y sis and period mea sures of par ity pro gres sion, Timaeus and Moultrie (2020) cat e go rized 83 lowincome countries according to the pre dom i nant form of stop ping (lim i ta tion, cur tail ment, or mixed) and the degree of post pone ment or spac ing dur ing the last 50 years.…”