Infant mortality and birth intervals.

Summary In the course of a demographic inquiry which also offered medical advice to the respondent women, information was obtained on the reproductive life and child mortality of women in three regions of Upper Volta. Foetal mortality rates are inversely correlated with fertility rates, whereas the opposite holds true of the mortality of children aged up to four years. An explanation of this phenomenon is attempted, showing how large variations in mortality rates continue to exist in developing countries. The second section of the paper deals with spontaneous abortions which happen much more frequently than is believed in Black Africa and with the effect of pathological sterility on birth intervals. Account is taken of the taboo on sexual relations after children have been born, a taboo which continues to be kept in the region studied and which as an important effect on inter-birth intervals.