ABSTRACT
The completion of fertility transition requires far more than merely improved standards of living, decreased infant mortality, and the availability—indeed, even the use—of fertility control technologies. One might suspect that changes in maternal diet might affect fertility, possibly increasing fecundability and reducing fetal mortality. Like women in other natural fertility populations, fertility in the Eskimo population was regulated in part by extended breastfeeding of children. The chapter describes fertility trends in several Western Alaskan Eskimo villages for three 10 year time periods. These periods are 1945 through 1954, at which time these villages were largely isolated from Western contact; 1955 through 1964, a decade during which Public Health nursing, bottle feeding, generally improved living conditions and a steadier year-round food supply were introduced. It also includes 1965 through 1974, the decade in which birth control information and products were first made available.
