The proximate determinants of fertility
Bongaarts, J.; Frank, O.; Lesthaeghe, R.
Population growth and reproduction in sub Saharan Africa technical analyses of fertility and its consequences: 133-143
1990
DOI: 10.1016/0160-791x(87)90003-0Document Number: 334898
The principal proximate determinants of fertility in sub-Saharan Africa are lactational amenorrhoea due to breast feeding, postpartum sexual abstinence, and involuntary pathological sterility. The relative importance of these determinants depends upon culture and tradition and the extent to which tradition is eroded by modernization. Breast feeding is virtually universal but continues for varying lengths of time. Similarly, customs of postpartum abstinence are not and never have been everywhere uniform. Among 9 countries of the region, average duration of postpartum abstinence varies from three months in Kenya to more than 15 months in Benin. Within countries, too, custom and habit vary. These variations account in good measure for fertility differences among sub-Saharan African countries. Because of current changes in breast feeding and postpartum abstinence, in many countries fertility will possibly stagnate at high levels or even rise before secular decline starts.
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