Death Loss, Fetal Wastage And Completed Family Size

Abstract

SummaryAn examination of pregnancy histories for 969 Filipino women assessed the extent to which pregnancy wastage or loss of a live born child influenced completed family size. Respondents were ever married women 45—49 years of age at the time of the survey; most respondents were beyond their childbearing years. It was found that 56% of the women lost at least one pregnancy or a live born child. While it might be expected that the loss of a child would lower completed family size, the findings indicated that women who reported the loss of one or more children had larger completed families than their counterparts who sustained no miscarriages or childhood deaths. Implications of fertility–mortality relationships are discussed.