birth control
Sex of listener and hormonal correlates of auditory thresholds.

Baker MA, Weiler EM.

The present study investigates changes in auditory threshold during 4-6 week intervals for men, women on birth control pills, and normal cycling women not on birth control pills. Thresholds were determined at 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 Hz. Normal cycling females had significantly lower thresholds during first half of the menstrual cycle than during the second half. Females on birth control pills showed significantly and consistently lower thresholds than other listeners at several frequencies. Explanations for the phenomena are proposed.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=922228&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
Motivations for the use of birth control: evidence from West Africa.

Ware H.

A conventional assumption in the family planning literature is that birth control in developing countries is first adopted by high parity women who wish to cease childbearing. The empirical support for this belief has mainly been drawn from interview surveys on the motivations for, and the timing of, the inception of birth control among married women in areas where there is no cultural precedent for birth spacing by traditional means. This study, on the other hand, is based on data drawn from an area sample of 6,606 women, married or single, aged 15-59, in Ibadan, Nigeria, where there is a tradition for the practice of abstinence after a birth for the purpose of birth spacing. The Nigerian pattern revealed in the data presented here is indeed distinctive in many respects: (a) although premarital sex is prevalent, levels of premarital contraception are high; and (b) within marriage, spacing is the most prominent motivation for contraceptive practice, more important than the limitation of family size.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=992171&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
Sterilization: women fit to be tied.

Caress B.

PIP: Sterilization abuse is both systematic and widespread. Frequently, women are misled about the dangers of surgery, misinformed about its permanence, and coerced while under the stress of labor or abortion. Generally, instances of abuses in the health system are treated as illegitimate, illegal aberations of an otherwise decent health care system. Careful examination of these so called abuses would reveal that each can be causally connected to particular aspects of the care of America's health system. Sterilization abuse stems from a combination of factors inherent in the health system plus 1 critical additional factor. Besides resulting from teaching and research imperatives, profit making, and the fee for service systems, such abuse is the most widespread example of medicine as an instrument of social control. Sterilization is the most extreme form of birth control and birth control is official US government policy. There were about 500,000 sterilizations performed on American women in 1973. None of the sterilization methods is innocuous, and each is associated with some physical and psychological side effects. General agreement exists in the medical literature that some risk is attendant to each procedure. Sterilization is the most dangerous and the fastest growing method of birth control. Since 1970 the figures show an almost 3-fold increase in the incidence of female sterilization, from 192,000 in 1970 to 548,000 in 1974. Much evidence exists to suggest that the increase in the number of sterilizations has fueled a trend toward the sterilization of younger women with fewer children. Official accommodation to liberalization of sterilization practices in the US came in 1969, when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) withdrew its age parity formula. This liberalization of sterilization guidelines opened the floodgates to abuse. Some of the increase in the number of operations performed is due to increased demand, some of it is the result of misinformation and coercion. Training imperatives and political attitudes account for some of the increase in hysterectomies. Many young gynecologists in training have united their professional needs for training and their political ideas. Another reason for an increase in operations is greed. Doctors' attitudes toward sterilization and the misinformation about its impact stem from the same source: a change in government attitude toward population control. Although budget tightening is the byword for most government financed health care at this time, this is not the case for contraceptive services. Between 1967 and 1973 federal support for family planning services increased more than 1300%, from $11 million to $149 million. The growth of US spending for its birth control program abroad has been just as spectacular. Providing birth control services is population control. The line between voluntary and involuntary sterilization becomes thinner all the time.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10237673&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
Main results of recent Hungarian family planning studies.

Klinger A.

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office has carried out five different sample surveys in the last fifteen years for investigating more closely questions of fertility, family planning and birth control. The study summarizes the main findings. Some of these surveys applied retrospective methods to investigate fertility, family planning and birth control bahaviour of females in the past. Surveys of another type tried to reveal in perspective manner, with longitudinal observation of the couples, changes which took place in family planning and birth control ideas and practice. The main purpose of recent population policy measures was to ensure simple reproduction of the population. As a result of the measures taken in 1974 to increase the number of births the birth-rate went up significantly. This increase (30% as compared to 1973) appeared primarily for the second birth which constitutes 62% of the increment in births in 1974, 31% is accounted for by an 11% increase in the first births. The number of third births rose by 13% and their relative share remained 10%. The number of fourthand further births did not increase and their relative share decreased by 1%. Fertility data of 1974 show that the birth-rate increase was not in line with the intended aim, i.e. it was not the number of third births that increased. The net reproduction coefficient showing long-range growth of the population calculated with birth-rate of 1974, has developed favourably, it was over unity for the first time since 1958 (it was about 1.05). The birth-rate increased in 1974 in every age-group of females. The largest increase (19%) occurred for females 25-34 years old. Though it was 16% also for females under 24. According to a sample survey investigating the number of intended children by married females under 35 it did not increase as compared to data of previous surveys of similiar character. The differences is that the proportion of those who wished to have two children increased, while of those who wished to have one or three and more children decreased. The study deals also with changes in the relative shares of intended children by females under 35 who are now to be married. In the concluding part of the study the femeles' attitude to birth control and changes in this field are discussed.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1213242&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
[Aspects to birth control (author's transl)]

[Article in German]

Maier W.

From 1964, the year with the highest new born rate since 1945, until 1972, the number of births in the BRD was reduced for 34%. Simultaneously, the birth rate of women between 20 and 30 years was decreased for a third. Presently, the average age of half of the women who deliver their first or second child is over 30 years. While on the one hand there are investigations on the practical experiences which are hidden behind the obvious "one child effect", it would be, on the other hand, dangerous, to lay out a demographic "production policy" which shows no interest in economy. In birth-control, biotic-private individual foundations are variable elements; social values, however, are non individual objectivities with temporal relatively great constancy. The splitting of these elements is, in the 20th century, tracing back with violent actuality to the original big line of Malthus and Darwin, which is to maintain sufficient scope for nourishment and reproduction to the human world with its vegetable and animal life. This concerns industrial and development countries as well. The challenge is to line out acceptable ideas for the solution of the Circulus vitiosus, based on statistical data, on socio-philosophic understandings which have to be worked out yet and on common sense.

PIP: Between 1964, the year with the highest birthrate since 1945, and 1972, the number of births in West Germany was reduced 34%. Simultaneously, the birthrate of women between 20 and 30 years was decreased by a third. Presently, the average age of half of the women who deliver their 1st or 2nd child is over 30 years. While on the one hand there are investigations on the practical epxeriences that are hidden behind the obvious "one child effect," it would be on the other hand, dangerous, to lay out a demographic "production policy" which shows no interest in economy. In birth control, private foundations are variable elements; social values, however, are nonindividual objectivities with relatively great constancy. The splitting of these elements, in the 20th century, goes back to the original concepts of Malthus and Darwin, which is to maintain sufficient scope for nourishment and reproduction to the human world with its vegetable and animal life. This concerns both industrial and developing countries. The challenge is to find acceptable ideas for the solution of the vicious circle, based on statistical data, on sociophilosophic understandings that have to be worked out yet and on common sense.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1248731&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
Modernism and contraceptive use in Colombia.

Baldwin WH, Pitt Ford TR.

This analysis addresses the question of whether fertility can be lowered without the prior occurrence of the social and economic changes that have come to be labeled modernization. The data show that there exists in Colombia a relatively high level of motivation to control fertility that, for many women, is not coupled with both knowledge of and access to a method of contraception. For the "traditional" woman, the problem may not be lack of motivation so much as lack of access to methods that she is aware of, such as the pill, and lack of knowledge of methods that require few resources of supplies, such as rhythm and withdrawal.

PIP: An analysis of the attitudes of Colombian women towards contraceptive use and actual contraceptive behavior indicates that knowledge of contraceptive techniques and access to supplies is critical to contraceptive use. Whether fertility can be significantly lowered without the prior occurrence of modernization has been questioned. In order to discover if there is motivation for family planning in Colombia, a developing country, independent of modernization, the results are examined of the National Fertility Study conducted in 1969 by the Colombian Association of Medical Faculties as a collaborative project with the Program of Comparative Fertility Studies in Colombia. 2951 married women or women living in consensual union in urban and rural areas were interviewed. Findings indicate that modern women, those of higher socioeconomic status, higher levels of schooling and of urban residence, are more likely to use fertility control methods and have fewer children. However, further analysis indicates that a favorable attitude toward family planning is independent of contraceptive use and that knowledge of contraception is strongly related to modernism and contraceptive use. Because urban women are generally more knowledgeable than rural women about all methods of contraception and the percent of all women claiming knowledge of each method increased with schooling level, lack of contraceptive knowledge rather than modernism is proposed as a critical factor in failure to practice birth control. In addition, traditional women are shown to be as likely as modern women to use contraceptive methods which did not require supplies and less likely to use those requiring technical knowledge. Consequently, cost and accessibility appear to be critical factors in contraceptive use. This demonstration that inadequate knowledge of birth control methods or restricted access to contraceptive supplies was probably more responsible for the limited practice of birth control in Colombia than were motivational factors associated with modernism would appear to keep open the possibility that widespread contraceptive practice can be achieved without modernizing the entire society.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1273911&dopt=Abstract birth control



birth control
Minority attitudes toward contraception.

Mitchell JO Sr.

PIP: The training division of the Los Angeles Regional Family Planning Council conducted a seminar for minority members to discover attitudes toward birth control. Indian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Black-Americans participated. Some fears and misunderstandings relative to birth control were voiced. The timidity of recent Chinese immigrants was mentioned. Male reluctance to use birth control out of a sense of machismo was mentioned in relation to Black- and Mexican-Americans. The conclusion was that, when birth control methods are adequately explained, women of all ethnic groups are willing to use them. To allay fears, suspicions, and concerns, family planning should be presented to minority communities as a health service and not a social service. Family planning clinics would be more accepted in these communities if they expanded their work into other health areas.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=4436850&dopt=Abstract birth control