M. G. A. Wilson

A NOTE ON INFANT DEATH IN MELBOURNE

By international standards current rates of neonatal and post neonatal infant mortality in the State of Victoria are among the lowest recorded, being roughly comparable with those of the Scandinavian bloc and New Zealand, and lower than those for most west European nations, the U.S.A. or Canada. As in these countries, the greatest proportion of Victorian infant deaths, i.e. deaths occurring up to the age of one year, now take place within the first week of life, the principal causes being those classified for statistical purposes as “mainly of pre-natal and natal origin” and dominated by “anoxic and hypoxic conditions”, “congenital abnormalities”, and “complications of pregnancy and childbirth”, including “difficult labour” (Victorian Yearbook, 1970). During the remainder of the first month of life, infant deaths are still largely a response to these conditions (c. 70% in 1968), but thereafter infections (particularly pneumonia and bronchitis) increase their toll until in the second 6 months of life they are responsible for more than 70% of infant deaths. Overall, however, less than 20% of all deaths under the age of one year can be considered to be the result of ‘exogenous’ factors. Under such conditions, particularly in a society which is by most standards affluent and prides itself on the ready availability of medical services to all sections of the community, it might be expected that the incidence of infant mortality according to social class o r geographical location would show little significant variation. Heady r f a / . (1955) have demonstrated in the U.K., however, that both neonatal and post neonatal death rates, when standardised for mother’s age and parity, reveal a consistent negative relationship with class, and pronounced and persistent variation by geographical region, from which they concluded that “while the social influences are strongest in the latter stages of infancy it does not follow that their effect on neonatal mortality is negligible, though how they affect neonatal mortality is not at all clear”. (p. 344). More than a decade later similar conclusions seem to be possible in relation to the distribution of infant deaths in the metropolitan area of Melbourne, for during the first 7 years of the 1960s both the neonatal and the total infant death rates revealed a strongly marked and very persistent spatial patterning in which the inner city municipalities experienced rates 2 and 3 times higher than those more peripherally located.

A spatial analysis of human fertility in Scotland: Reappraisal and extension

Abstract In an earlier study of Scottish fertility (Jones, 1975) it was concluded that a substantial part of the areal variability in county and major city Crude Birth Rates could be attributed to variations in age structure and, to a lesser extent, socio‐economic composition. Because Crude Birth Rate levels are affected by population composition this study seeks to determine the extent to which areal variations in reproduction can be attributed to behavioural rather than structural effects. It is suggested that areal differences in Scottish reproductive behaviour reflect well defined, deeply ingrained and temporally persistent differences within Scottish society.

Two decades of ‘legal’ abortion in Scotland: A spatio‐temporal analysis

Abstract An increasingly important contributor to the low fertility characteristic of many western societies now experiencing ‘the second demographic transition’ has been the availability of legal pregnancy termination, so much so that national rates of one abortion for every four or five births are not uncommon. Prior to the passage of the 1967 Act legalising abortion in the UK, abortion in Scotland was not actually illegal, but its availability was extremely limited in most areas outside the northeast. Although uptake had increased dramatically in all regions by the mid 1990s, inter‐regional differences in abortion rates remained pronounced. This paper charts regional changes in uptake rates through the period 1974–96 then outlines and tests the effectiveness of ecological models involving socio‐demographic and health‐service related variables in accounting for variations in abortion rates across the thirteen Scottish Health Board regions in 1996. Although deprivation levels, marital and educational status are significantly involved, regional variations in consultant attitudes and professional practice seem also to be important. If the move to free up the availability of the ‘morning‐after pill’ is accepted throughout Scotland such differentials may soon disappear.

“Plus ça change…….” change and stasis in the age structure of Irish fertility, 1961–2002: A spatio‐temporal analysis

Abstract Since the 1960s Irish fertility has undergone dramatic change. While the broad outlines of both the nature and the origins of such change are, by now, well enough known and understood, little attention has been paid to the way in which changes in age specific fertility have been manifested regionally. This paper uses cluster analysis to group counties and county boroughs/cities according to their age‐specific profiles of fertility at each full census year between 1961 and 2002 and then ANOVA to identify meaningful statistical relationships between cluster membership in each year and variables descriptive of the demographic and socio‐economic context. By 1981 younger fertility profiles had spread from south eastern areas to almost all regions, but during the 1980s older fertility profiles became increasingly characteristic throughout western and northern districts. Despite the on‐going, nation‐wide ageing of fertility profiles since 1991, this basic regional distinction has remained largely intact...

Higher Order Nuptial Fertility in New South Wales, 1996: Context, process, implications

In the face of below replacement and still declining national fertility rates in most Western societies, the proportion of reproductively aged women having a third or higher order birth has particular demographic significance. This paper seeks to complement previous survey-based studies of the socio-economic, behavioural and motivational characteristics of individuals progressing or intending to progress from a second to a third or higher order birth by examining the spatial patterning and ecological context of such births in NSW during 1996 and, in particular, the extent to which such births are especially characteristic of socially disadvantaged regions and localities in the state. The results suggest that while there is a clear, though not overwhelming, tendency towards such a concentration there is an equally clear tendency for older women living in some of the most socially advantaged areas of the metropolitan zone to engage in higher order childbearing, thereby suggesting the operation of multiple causal pathways. In the more disadvantaged areas of the metropolitan zone religious and/or ethnically based pro-natalist value sets also appear to play a significant role. In better-off localities, however, higher order reproduction would seem to reflect the greater choices - and resources - available to women, whether in or out of the labour force. Because ecological analysis cannot provide precise answers to behavioural questions and because only higher order births to women in current relationships have been taken into account in this study, further research, employing a variety of methodologies, operating at a variety of scales and drawing on alternative data sets would seem desirable if such questions are to be more fully elucidated and their policy implications better understood.