Factors Affecting Birth

Birth is an important component mainly related to fertility in the study of population education. Fertility deals with the birth. The population growth of a place/country depends upon fertility because the country with high level of fertility has rapid growth of population.

Therefore the factors affecting birth are described as follows: -

Biological Factors

The biological factors are related to conception and childbearing that may affect fecundity or fertility of a woman.

1. Heredity: It is believed that the ability to reproduce is reproduce is related to the hereditary factor. If someone‘s ancestor is infertile, there is possibility that some below the line may be infertile. Fertility may be impaired by the defects in the sex organs and such defects may be inherited.
2. Health: If a person is in good health, he/she has the highest possibility to procreate. If a person is suffering from disease, the reproductive capacity can be adversely affected.
3. Age: According to various studies conducted (USAID and UNFPA 1994- 2001),childbearing starts at the age of 15 and it starts peak up at 20’s.then it goes down and ultimately reaches to zero at the age of 49. So, marriage at the early age is the major reason for the large number of children being born. Age factor, therefore, is quite significant in controlling rapid population growth.
4. Ovulation: It means the release of ovum by ovaries. Every twenty eight days a healthy woman, during the years of sexual maturity, from age 15-49,experiences the ovulation. From each ovary one or more ova release. During that time, a woman is capable of conceiving a child. Thereafter, the woman becomes infertile until the next ovulation.
5. Lactation: Lactation is a period of breast feed. During lactation, mother’s breast feed their children. It is believed that pregnancy is prevented so long as the mammary glands are active and when mother is breast feeding. The discharge of ova from ovaries is also delayed during this time.
6. Pregnancy wastage: Miscarriage, involuntary abortion or stillbirth interrupt the capacity to reproduce frequently. The period of interruption, delays the frequency of childbirth than during normal pregnancy. A woman may have miscarriage due to defects in her health or may be due to inadequate pre-natal care.

Psychological factors

There are certain social values and assumptions which creates psychological pressure upon the couples to reproduce. Some of them are: -

1. Psychological pressure from parenthood: Married couples feel relieved as soon as they have a child. They consider that their roles and responsibilities are fulfilled. If they could not beget any child for some time, everyone starts to worry about their future and hence the couple feels a psychological pressure to beget offspring.
2. Psychological pressure of virility: There is strong notion that a man’s manliness may be proved by his ability to give birth to a child. The more children he has, he believes, it is prestigious, and he becomes a proud man. So, he feels a cerebral necessity to bear children.
3. Psychological pressure of family prestige: Sons are regarded as the carrier of the family name, keeper of the family generation, etc. So, importance of sons makes the couple not to stop trying for a son, even if they already have many daughters.
4. Psychological pressure of competition: Begetting many children has been a sense of pride and prestige. Mostly in the rural areas, people often get into the sense of competition among family members, peer groups and others in getting more children. This is one of the reasons for having a large family size in Nepal.

Economic factors

1. More hands to work: People are encouraged to have a large family, because they believe, that large family will have many hands to work in the field.
2. Bigger income: There is a belief that when there are many hands to work together, there will be bigger income. Children are considered as the earning members of the family. Even though there is a ban on child labour, most of the children are made to do odd jobs in the market, in the streets or in the houses to contribute to their share in the family income.
3. Insurance: Parents consider their children as the asset for their future. They feel that their children will take care of them in their old age. This is the notion, which makes them to have many children, so that future is insured.
4. Security: In a bigger family, the elder children are the ones who take care of their younger brothers and sisters, even at their tender ages. Parents enjoy and feel secured when there are many children around them.

Socio cultural factors

1. God’s blessing: Children are considered as god’s blessing. Ever parent is supposed to have many children because they feel that the children are the gifts from god. Therefore, it is the primary duty of every parent to have many children, so that they can say proudly that they are graciously blessed by god.
2. Family structure: Most of the Nepalese families are extended families except in some urban areas. Extended families get their young ones to motivate and support early marriage and encourage them to have many children resulting in high fertility. Besides, wives are encouraged to bear more children in order to have more strength within the family.
3. Respect for elders: Nepal, like other developing countries, still has high value on the respect for elders. It has been a tradition to obey the elders even in a matter of child bearing practice. This practice, sometimes, leads to a large number of children especially in rural areas.
4. Fatalism: Belief in fate is the way of life in the Nepalese society. People leave everything to fate whether it is success or failure. Even if success is achieved by a person after hard work, he/she appreciates fate. Likewise, if people have many children, they believe that it is their fate which provided them children.
5. Taboos: Taboos are some practices which religion or custom regard as forbidden. For example, untouchability. Sometimes social taboos are not in favour of high fertility. Such taboos keep the males and females away from associations. Some of these are: -
   • Prohibition of sex for a considerably long time after childbirth
   • Prohibition of widow marriage
   • Prohibition of sex before marriage
   • Limits of marriageable age