In the category of Questions I am Too Lazy to Research, I don’t understand how the third world produces so many children. When I ask this question, people misunderstand me. I understand that birth control may not be available to women (or men) in poor countries, and that women may be under enormous social pressure to reproduce, but that’s not what I’m getting at.
Poor countries have a high fertility rate (as in how many children a woman bears). In fact, this is a measure of how poor a country is. They also have short doubling rates, meaning it takes a short period of time, compared to wealthy nations, for the population to double.
My question is this: how can allegedly starving women produce to many children? After all, you can’t really get pregnant and produce living offspring if you are malnourished, and in turn those children can’t survive long enough to contribute to a high doubling rate.
And if these women really are well-nourished enough to get pregnant again and again, what is this I’m hearing about how all those people are starving? How do you reconcile this?
Put it another way: if you have two ponds with fish in them, and one has more food (is wealthier) than the other pond (is poorer), you would expect the poor pond to be unable to reproduce all that much. In human poor countries, they reproduce a lot. Dig?
No matter how you slice it, I think overpopulation is a root of a lot of our other problems. (Says the woman who is trying to get pregnant!)
Maybe I need to talk to a demographics expert? How do I get the answers?
3 users responded " Why is the third world so fertile? "
February 24 2012
The “starving” label for third-world nations has mostly gone away; people in such nations now suffer more from heart disease.
I think Sarah answered her own question right at the beginning: enormous pressure to reproduce, lack of access or willingness to use birth control, presumed benefits (and few consequences) for families that produce many children. It’s no more complex than that.
February 25 2012
If you malnourish your average american woman her body will prevent fertility. A stereotypical African woman’s body is more accustomed to this state so doesn’t ‘go into shock’ (so to speak) and allows more bodily functions as normal.
There’s probably some form of darwinian adaption to account for too, as those who survive to rear children have inherited the ability to give birth under poor nutritional conditions.
Biology finds a way to survive if it can. If food supply is not going to improve the human body can remain infertile, therefore the species (or group) dies out. If it can adapt to become pregnant even when conditions are less than ideal the group survives! Even if it is in a state of misery.
PS. came across this site via your twitter. Good posts.
March 19 2012
Thanks, guys:)You’ve helped answer a nagging question.
So what I’m hearing is that the third world’s situation is actually better than I’ve been led to believe: there are a sizable number of women well-nourished and healthy enough to give birth and the kids are in turn healthy enough to contribute to the population’s growth.
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