Suchergebnisse

As of April 2010, all maternity care at government healthcare facilities in Sierra Leone is provided at no cost to patients. In late 2010, we conducted a community health census of 18 sections of the city of Bo (selected via randomized cluster sampling from 68 total sections). Among the 3421 women with a history of pregnancy who participated in the study, older women most often reported having a history of both home and hospital deliveries, while younger women showed a preference for hospital births. The proportion of lastborn children delivered at a healthcare facility increased from 71.8% of offspring 10–14 years old to 81.1% of those one to nine years old and 87.3% of infants born after April 2010. These findings suggest that the new maternal healthcare initiative has accelerated an existing trend toward a preference for healthcare facility births, at least in some urban parts of Sierra Leone.

AbstractWe use monthly birth data collected by the Human Fertility Database to analyze the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on birth trends until September 2022 in 38 higher‐income countries. We also present estimates of the monthly total fertility rate adjusted for seasonality. Our analysis reveals that the pandemic led to distinct swings in births and fertility rates. The initial pandemic shock was associated with a fall in births in most countries, with the sharpest drop in January 2021. Next, birth rates showed a short‐term recovery in March 2021, following the conceptions after the end of the first wave of the pandemic. Most countries reported a stable or slightly increasing number of births in the subsequent months, especially in autumn 2021. Yet another, quite unexpected, downturn in births started in January 2022, linked with the conceptions in spring 2021 when the pandemic measures were mostly eased out and vaccination was gaining momentum. Taken together and contrary to some initial expectations, the coronavirus pandemic did not bring a lasting "baby bust" in most of the analyzed countries. Especially the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States experienced an improvement in their birth dynamics in 2021 compared with the prepandemic period.

An established role for statistical social science is to try to uncover the extent to which aggregate behaviour is conditioned by context as exemplified by the work of Durkheim. A decade prior to Durkheim's seminal work, eleven 'laws' of human migratory behaviour were proposed by Ravenstein. In this paper we suggest an extension to this work, that: migration balances the relative worth of people to places over the course of human lifetimes; not in days, month or years: people follow the tides of life. We explore the concept of net cohort migration to demonstrate this for England and Wales, for which long-term quality datasets are available.

Anhand der Geburtenziffern und der Kinderzahlen in der ehemaligen DDR bzw. in den fünf neuen Bundesländern wird analysiert, inwieweit die frühere pronatalistische Bevölkerungspolitik erfolgreich war. Es zeigt sich, daß die Wirkungen selbst bei großem Mitteleinsatz und ideologischer Unterstützung äußerst gering waren. (SH)

Childbirth registration in Zimbabwe has decreased over the years, yet the risk factors associated with this incompleteness have not been explored. This study investigates the trends in birth registration completeness and factors associated with the decrease in birth registration among children aged 0-5 years from 2005-2015. We use data from the, 2005-06, 2010-11 and 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey. Trends in birth registration completeness based on survey year were calculated and multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the predictors of birth registration. Birth registration completeness was 75.4 percent, 47.3 percent, and 43.8 percent in 2005, 2010, and 2015, respectively. Inequities in birth registration completeness become apparent when examined by wealth, urban/rural location, geographical region, maternal education, healthcare utilisation, and marital status. Child age, maternal education, marital status, household wealth status, residence, province, and delivery place were significant predictors of birth registration. Efforts to improve birth registration in Zimbabwe should target children born at home, children born to single and young mothers, and children whose mothers are poor and reside in rural areas.

"Das vorliegende Working Paper stellt den ersten Teil eines Projektes zum Thema Geburtenentwicklung und Kinderwunsch dar. Konkret geht es um die Frage, warum in einigen europäischen Ländern die Geburtenzahlen stabil sind bzw. sogar zunehmen und im Gegensatz dazu die Fertilität in anderen Ländern rückläufig ist. Diesbezügliche Erklärungsansätze müssen gesellschaftliche und strukturelle Rahmenbedingungen berücksichtigen, aber auch Entscheidungsprozesse auf individueller Ebene sowie auf der Paarebene miteinbeziehen. Die meisten theoretischen Modelle stützen sich in ihren Argumentationen nur auf eine dieser Dimensionen und greifen daher zu kurz. Ziel des Projektes ist die Konzeption eines mehrdimensionalen Modells und dessen empirische Überprüfung in einem Drei-Länder-Vergleich 'Österreich-Schweden-Spanien'. Diese Länder repräsentieren in ihrer Heterogenität die unterschiedlichen Trends in Europa und lassen dadurch gewisse, allgemeine Schlussfolgerungen für die gesamteuropäische Geburtenentwicklung zu. Der hier vorgestellte erste Projektabschnitt beinhaltet die theoretische Grundlegung, die Modellkonzeption und die sozialstatistische Analyse der untersuchten Länder. Der sozialstatistische Ländervergleich und die Ergebnisse der qualitativen Studie 'Kinderwunsch von Paaren' stellen die empirische Datenbasis dar, um die Forschungsfragen zu beantworten sowie die Tauglichkeit des entwickelten Modells zu überprüfen." (Autorenreferat)

Evidence suggests that cesarean birth rates are high and increasing in some developing countries. The objectives of this study are to compile the best current estimate of cesarean birth rates for developing countries, to estimate regional rates, and to document trends nationally and by urban/ rural residence where data permit. A database of cesarean birth rates was compiled representing 90 percent of births in the developing world, resulting in an estimated cesarean birth rate for the developing world of 12 percent, with regional rates ranging from 3 to 26 percent. Data representing 45 percent of births in the developing world show that a majority of countries experienced increases in cesarean birth rates during the 1990s, except in sub‐Saharan African countries, where little if any change occurred. Cesarean birth rates must be monitored routinely to call attention to rapidly changing practices. These data can, in turn, trigger investigation into the appropriateness of the rate in a given context.