6.1. Motivational factors Motivational factors have played an important role in bringing about a change from high fertility to low fertility. Demographers are of the opinion that over the years tremendous changes have occurred in the attitudes of couples towards reproduction. It appears that they have moved away from a strong positive desire to have several children to a strong motivation for a limited family. These forces operated at the individual couples who translated into action the desire for a small family.
6.2. Economic and social factors
The phenomenon of fertility decline in the now developed countries is very complex. Several interacting and overlapping economic and social factors were responsible for the transition from high to low fertility. These are: Industrialization Urbanization Rising levels of living and increased cost of bringing up children Family functions and structures Relationship between mortality and fertility Social mobility
7. Differential fertility It has been observed that the levels and patterns of fertility vary considerably in various subgroups of the same population. These subgroups may be based on residence, whether urban or rural, social and economic status in terms of educational attainment, occupations, income, size of land holding, religion, caste and race etc. A study of differential fertility is useful in identifying the factors which determine fertility levels among various sub-groups. Differential fertility can be understood as a result of following factors. 7.1. Ecological factors
Regional differences in fertility: The fertility rates of various regions of states or provinces within the one country may differ widely.
Rural-Urban residence and fertility: Towards the end of the last century, in the low fertility areas of the world, it was found that the fertility of those residing in cities was lower than that of rural residents and these differentials were more or less stable.
7.2. Socio-economic factors Educational Attainment and fertility: The educational attainment of couples has a very strong bearing on the number of children born. Educational attainment especially of women is one of the indicators of modernization and the status of women in society and higher the educational level, the lower was the family size. Economic status and fertility: general studies in the past have highlighted the inverse relationship between the economic status of the family and fertility. Occupational of husband and fertility: In developed countries, occupation especially that of the husband is used as an indicator of social economic status and differential fertility is studies according to the occupation of the husband. It is indicated that the wives of farmers and farm workers recorded a higher fertility than the wives of men engaged in non agricultural occupations. These differences were more pronounced in France and the United states than in the other countries. Employment of wife and fertility: It has been found in several studies that the gainfully employed women have a smaller number of children than those who are not employed. Religion, caste, race and fertility: Religion is considered to be an important factor affecting fertility. The study of differential fertility of various religions as well as ethnic groups has important social and political implications. At one time, all the religions of the world, except Buddhism, were pro-natalist or “populationist”. The injunctions laid down in various religions indicate the importance of high fertility. Some illustrations are: “be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth” – Judaism and Christanity; “Marry a women who holds her husband extremely dear and who is richly fruitful” – Islam; “Make the bride the mother of good and fortunate children, bless her to get ten children and make the husband eleventh one” – Hinduism. It may however be pointed out that all these religions have their roots in the distant past, which was a period of high mortality. As such, the emphasis on prolific fertility was a functional adjustment to high mortality in order to ensure the continuation of the group.
8. Mortality The study of mortality deals with the effects of death on population. The United Nations and the world health Organization have defined death as follows: “Death is the permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after birth has taken place or the post natal cessation of vital functions without capacity of resuscitation.” A death can thus occur only after a live birth and the span between birth and death is life. Any death prior to a live birth which has been defined by the United Nations as follows: “Live birth is the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles, each product of such a birth is considered live-born.” It is therefore evident that any death prior to a live birth is not considered as a death. Thus, abortions and still births are referred to not as deaths but as fetal deaths. Any expulsion of the fetus, either spontaneous or induced, which occurs before the fetus becomes viable, that is, capable of independent existence outside its mother, is known as an abortion. When a birth does not have any of the characteristics included in either of these two definitions of live birth or abortion, it is known as still birth.
9. Infant mortality The study of infant mortality gains importance especially because mortality during the first year of life is invariably high for all countries irrespective of whether the overall levels of mortality are high or low. The level of mortality is very high in the first few hours, days and weeks of life. The reasons for infant death at the earlier and later stages of infancy differ to a certain extent.
Infant mortality or infant deaths are carefully grouped into two categories according to the age at death. The first category consists of those infants who die before they complete four weeks of life. The other category consists of those infants who die between 28 days and 365 days of their life. The rate based on the first period is known as the neo-natal mortality rate. Factors which affect neo-natal mortality deaths are primarily endogenous, while those which affect post-neo-natal deaths are primarily exogenous.
9.1. Endogenous factors The endogenous factors are related to the formation of the fetus in the womb and are therefore biological in nature. Among the biological factors affecting fetal and neo-natal infant mortality rates, the important ones are the age of the mother, the birth order and the period of spacing between births, prematurity, weight at irth and the fact of multiple births. 9.2. Exogenous factors Social, cultural, economic and environmental factors are also found to affect infant mortality especially during the post-neo-natal period. Post-neo-natal deaths are therefore mainly due to various epidemics caused by communicable diseases both of the digestive system such as diarrhoea and enteritis, and of the respiratory system, such as bronchitis and pneumonia, as well as by faulty feeding patterns and poor hygiene. The underlying environmental factors include crowding and congestion, unsanitary surroundings, lack of proper sunshine and fresh air etc. Illegitimacy is also an important factor contributing to a high infant mortality rate.
10. Reasons for high mortality in the past Death rates all over the world were very high and fluctuating till the 19th century. The main reasons for such high mortality rates were: Acute and chronic food shortages causing famines and conditions of malnutrition Epidemics Recurrent wars Poor sanitary conditions
10.1. Famines and Food Shortages In the pre-industrial phase, man had limited control over his environment and his food supply was profoundly affected by changes in weather conditions, such as droughts, floods, severe winters and scorching summers. Agricultural production was also limited by other conditions such as inefficiency of labour, pests and by plant diseases. Even when the harvest was good, food could not be stored for the future because of inefficient methods of storage nor it could be transported, to scarcity areas since easy and cheap means of transportation was not available. Besides acute famines, conditions of severe malnutrition resulting from continuous insufficient food supply prevailed in all countries, the state of malnutrition weakening million of people to such an extent that they fell an easy prey to infection. Men’s suffering from food shortages, both in terms of quality and quantity, were unable to work efficiently. They thus lowered their own as well as their community’s income. 10.2. Epidemics Since the beginning, mankind has suffered from communicable diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, small pox, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia plague etc. as well as from childhood communicable diseases such as measles, whooping, cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc. All these diseases were quite common until recent times and took a heavy toll of life. These diseases tended to spread rapidly in densely situated areas through personal contacts, community use of contaminated water and food supply and as a result of migration of people and the movement of diseases carrying flies from place to place.
10.3. Recurrent wars Throughout the mankind’s history, war has been an important factor affecting the population size. The effect of war on human population is two-fold. First, death came to military personnel in the battlefield. Soldiers also died of wounds received in battle. Deaths among military personnel were also caused by deprivation and diseases associated with wars. Some wars indirectly caused heavy civilian causalities through the spread of diseases carried by armies through plunders and various other forms of social and economic disorganizations. Napoleon was utterly helpless in his fight against typhus, pneumonia, dysentery and scurvy. 10.4. Poor sanitary Conditions Throughout most of the mankind’s history, sanitary conditions have been extremely poor. There was very little knowledge of the medical value of cleanliness. In pre-industrial times, the standard of living was low; the personal hygiene of the people was inadequate and communal sanitary facilities were absent. All these factors contributed to extremely filthy environments, leading to epidemics and all kinds of diseases. The use of soap was almost unknown in the thirteenth century. It may thus be concluded that food shortages, various types of death dealing epidemics and unsanitary hygienic conditions resulted in high levels of mortality from the beginning of the history of mankind or the human ancestral forms.