| Abstract: | This study used data from the 1975 World Fertility Surveys in Pakistan and Sri Lanka to examine the association between fertility and infant mortality. A positive association between the mean number of children ever born and the number of child deaths was found in both rural and urban areas of each country. In Pakistan, women with no child loss had 3.3 children ever born while those who lost 1 child had 4.7 children; in Sri Lanka the figures were 3.5 and 5.4 children, respectively. However, child replacement was much less marked when controls were introduced for demographic and socioeconomic factors. When deaths at specific parities were examined, and age and time since previous birth were controlled, child replacement at the 1st parity was reduced to .3 in Pakistan and .2 in Sri Lanka. Further control for a series of socioeconomic factors (e.g. husband's level of education, husband's occupation, household structure, religion, standard of living) reduced the child replacement ratio to .2 children in Pakistan and zero in Sri Lanka. Replacement was slightly more pronounced when there were fewer surviving male children. This analysis suggests that the relationship between infant mortality and fertility is complex. A possibility that could not be explored in this study is that variation in fertilitty may itself be responsible for some of the variation in infant mortality. |
