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Family Planning and Ethnic Heritage: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

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  • Bertocchi, Graziella
  • Dimico, Arcangelo
  • Falco, Chiara

Abstract

Family planning is a critical issue in countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility rates coexist with low contraceptive use alongside ad- verse perinatal outcomes. Using a combination of ethnographic, ecological, and folklore data, we investigate the role played in this context by postpartum sex- ual abstinence, an extensively documented practice that, in preindustrial societies, finds its biological justification as a means to safeguard child survival. First, we show that the duration of contemporary postpartum abstinence increases with the duration of ancestral postpartum sex taboos within a woman's ethnic group. Sec- ond, postpartum abstinence is de facto pronatalist, as it increases the number of children ever born to a woman. At the same time, it increases the number of chil- dren of a woman who have died; lengthens birth intervals though not sufficiently to meet recommended guidelines; and increases neonatal death and child stunting. Exploring the underlying mechanisms reveals that postpartum abstinence is asso- ciated with patriarchal cultural norms and that the motivation for its adoption is that it serves as a purification ritual. Overall, our findings question the biologi- cal rationale for postpartum abstinence as a means to protect child health, while aligning with anthropological evidence documenting its adoption as a ritual.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo & Falco, Chiara, 2024. "Family Planning and Ethnic Heritage: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1511, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1511
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family planning; postpartum abstinence; postpartum sex taboos; con- traception; fertility; birth spacing; child health; tuber suitability; folklore; female empowerment; rituals; sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • N37 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving

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