INTEGBI 35AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Total Fertility Rate, Lactational Amenorrhea, Fecundity
11 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Average number of babies women have over a lifetime correlate with the population growth rate. Fertility: the production of a live birth (actual birth) Fecundity: the biological capacity to reproduce (theoretical potential to give birth) Crucial to fertility: fecundity interacts with other behavioral processes to determine the level of fertility e. g. cultural practices. Increase use of contraception = decrease in production of babies. Average age at first birth increases over time. Couples believe that control of # of offspring is possible, desirable, and acceptable. Change behavior after max # of children is met. Controlled: high number of births in the early years compared to the decrease in later years. Seasonality: more babies are born on diff seasons. Factors contributing to variance in natural fertility: waiting time to conception. Duration of lactational infecundability (length of time nursing babies) Sry gene determines male characteristics after 6 weeks (evolved 300 mya) Human reproductive biology: women and male genitalia are homologous.
