Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden

• Published in: European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de Démographie
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Netherlands 2011
• Subjects: Fertility control; Fertility transition; Europe; Birth control; Historical demography; Birth spacing; Controle de la fecondite; Transition de la fecondite; Controle des naissances; Demographie historique; Espacement des naissances; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2262/59151; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-011-9228-z

Abstract Fertility in nineteenth century Europe before the fertility transition has been described as high, unregulated, and stable; the extent of fertility control remains a controversial topic. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is evidence of deliberate birth spacing in northern Sweden prior to the onset of the fertility transition. This study analyses micro-level parish records of 9,636 women in nineteenth century northern Sweden?a remote but, at the time, economically dynamic frontier region of Sweden. Event history analysis reveals evidence of birth spacing that suggests some conscious birth control. Piecewise exponential models of the transition from second to third birth reveal circumstances in which parents increased or decreased the time to next birth. The results on the survival of previous children, geographic context, sex of previous children, and variations in grain prices all indicate that parents deliberately manipulated the spacing between births. Resume Si la fecondite pretransitionnelle en Europe au 19e siecle a ete decrite comme elevee, stable et non regulee, l?existence d?un certain controle de la fecondite reste un sujet controverse. L?objectif de cet article est de determiner l?eventuelle existence d?un espacement volontaire des naissances dans le Nord de la Suede avant le debut de la transition de fecondite. Les donnees proviennent des registres paroissiaux et concernent 9 636 femmes du Nord de la Suede au 19e siecle, dans une region eloignee mais frontaliere caracterisee par un grand dynamisme economique a cette epoque. L?analyse biographique revele un espacement des naissances qui suggere un certain controle volontaire des naissances. Des modeles exponentiels par morceaux de la transition entre la deuxieme et la troisieme naissance revelent des situations au cours desquelles les parents allongent ou raccourcissent l?intervalle entre naissances. Les resultats bases sur la survie de l?enfant precedent, le contexte geographique, la composition par sexe de la fratrie deja constituee et les fluctuations du prix des cereales, indiquent que les parents controlaient volontairement l?intervalle intergenesique. phone: [phone] (Kolk, Martin) [e-mail] (Kolk, Martin) Department of Sociology, Demography Unit, Stockholm University - 106 91 - Stockholm - SWEDEN (Kolk, Martin) SWEDEN Registration: 2011-01-06 Received: 2010-01-29 Accepted: 2010-12-03 ePublished: 2011-01-22