Topic
Fertility
About: Fertility is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 29988 publications have been published within this topic receiving 681106 citations.
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TL;DR: An extensive study of the demographic transition in Europe shows the absence of a simple link of fertility with education, proportion urban, infant mortality and other aspects of development, and suggests the importance of such cultural factors as common customs associated with a common language, and the strength of religious traditions.
Abstract: Demographic transition is a set of changes in reproductive
behaviour that are experienced as a society is transformed from a
traditional pre-industrial state to a highly developed, modernized
structure. The transformation is the substitution of slow growth
achieved with low fertility and mortality for slow growth maintained
with relatively high fertility and mortality rates. Contrary to early
descriptions of the transition, fertility in pre-modem societies was
well below the maximum that might be attained. However, it was kept at
moderate levels by customs (such as late marriage or prolonged
breast-feeding) not related to the number of children already born.
Fertility has been reduced during the demographic transition by the
adoption of contraception as a deliberate means of avoiding additional
births. An extensive study of the transition in Europe shows the absence
of a simple link of fertility with education, proportion urban, infant
mortality and other aspects of development. It also suggests the
importance of such cultural factors as common customs associated with a
common language, and the strength of religious traditions. Sufficient
modernization nevertheless seems always to bring the transition to low
fertility and mortality.
742 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the effect of culture on important economic outcomes by using the 1970 census to examine the work and fertility behavior of women born in the U.S. but whose parents were born elsewhere.
Abstract: We study the effect of culture on important economic outcomes by using the 1970 census to examine the work and fertility behavior of women born in the U.S. but whose parents were born elsewhere. We use past female labor force participation and total fertility rates from the country of ancestry as our cultural proxies. These variables should capture, in addition to past economic and institutional conditions, the beliefs commonly held about the role of women in society (i.e., culture). Given the different time and place, only the beliefs embodied in the cultural proxies should be potentially relevant. We show that these cultural proxies have positive and significant explanatory power for individual work and fertility outcomes, even after controlling for possible indirect effects of culture. We examine alternative hypotheses for these positive correlations and show that neither unobserved human capital nor networks are likely to be responsible.
735 citations
TL;DR: A consensus-based and evidence-driven set of 283 terminologies used in infertility and fertility care was generated to harmonize communication among health professionals and scientists as well as the lay public, patients and policy makers.
730 citations
TL;DR: Weight loss should be considered as a first option for women who are infertile and overweight, and the cost savings of the programme were considerable.
Abstract: Obesity affects ovulation, response to fertility treatment, pregnancy rates and outcome. In this prospective study, a weight loss programme was assessed to determine whether it could help obese infertile women, irrespective of their infertility diagnosis, to achieve a viable pregnancy, ideally without further medical intervention. The subjects underwent a weekly programme aimed at lifestyle changes in relation to exercise and diet for 6 months; those that did not complete the 6 months were treated as a comparison group. Women in the study lost an average of 10.2 kg/m2, with 60 of the 67 anovulatory subjects resuming spontaneous ovulation, 52 achieving a pregnancy (18 spontaneously) and 45 a live birth. The miscarriage rate was 18%, compared to 75% for the same women prior to the programme. Psychometric measurements also improved. None of these changes occurred in the comparison group. The cost savings of the programme were considerable. Prior to the programme, the 67 women had had treatment costing a total of A$550,000 for two live births, a cost of A$275,000 per baby. After the programme, the same women had treatment costing a total of A$210,000 for 45 babies, a cost of A$4600 per baby. Thus weight loss should be considered as a first option for women who are infertile and overweight.
729 citations
TL;DR: The fertility transition is becoming universal phenomenon, in which every country may be placed on a continuum of progress in the transition.
Abstract: Demography is a science short on theory, rich in quantification. Nevertheless, demography has produced one of the best documented generalizations in the social sciences: the demographic transition. What is the demographic transition? Stripped to its essentials it is the theory that societies progress from a pre-modern regime of high fertility and high mortality to a post-modern regime of low fertility and low mortality. The cause of the transition has been sought in the reduction of the death rate by controlling epidemic and contagious diseases. Then, with modernization, children become more costly. Cultural changes weaken the importance of children. The increasing empowerment of women to make their own reproductive decisions leads to smaller families. Thus there is a change in values, emphasizing the quality of children rather than their quantity. In short, the fertility transition is becoming universal phenomenon, in which every country may be placed on a continuum of progress in the transition.
706 citations