Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/304388 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1511
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
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.
Subjects: 
Family planning
postpartum abstinence
postpartum sex taboos
con- traception
fertility
birth spacing
child health
tuber suitability
folklore
female empowerment
rituals
sub-Saharan Africa
JEL: 
J13
I18
N37
O11
D15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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