#1 Pregnant or breastfeeding for 30 years

FACT OF THE DAY: Some women hardly have a period their whole life because they are constantly pregnant or breastfeeding

I have been reading a book about a group of people called the Gusii who live in the Western highlands of Kenya where the rain falls abundantly and the soil is rich.  The book is written by a husband and wife team who spent many years living in Kenya getting to know the Gusii people. They were particularly interested in how the Gusii looked after their babies and brought up their children.

At the time of their research (1970s) the Gusii lived the classic African life. You can picture the scene; groups of round huts with thatched rooves surrounded by playing children, men tending their large herds of cattle and women working in the fields.

Less typical, was the impressively large number of children that most Gusii women conceived, gave birth to and raised successfully. The Gusii have one of the highest fertility rates in the world, typically most women give birth to 10 children and lose 2 along the way. This is around one or two more surviving children per mother than in most parts of East Africa.

During their research they found that most mothers had been pregnant or breastfeeding (enough to stop them menstruating) for virtually all their reproductive years. One 49 year old woman they talked to could only remember having had two periods at all in her life. It seems that what we euphemistically refer to as a woman’s “childbearing years” literally are a woman’s childbearing years for Gusii women!

Women have relatively long gaps between each child, maybe two to three years (any less is thought reckless). Without birth control this is achieved partly because men usually have more than one wife to “visit” to satisfy their needs. From marrying at 18 until the menopause at 45, a child every three years would result in the desired ten children over a lifetime, and an astonishing 30 years of non-stop looking after young children.

Can you imagine? The thought of so many pregnancies and labours to endure, as well as uninterrupted sleep and never-ending breastfeeding for so many years sounds torturous to me! Then there are the actual children to bathe, clothe, clean and feed - oh and not to forget the planting, ploughing and harvesting of the crops as well as collecting the water. And there’s me complaining about putting on the dishwasher and unpacking the shopping.

I suppose the mothers will at least have plentiful older children to pitch in. In fact, from the age of 5 years, older siblings are expected to look after the smaller ones during the day while the mother works in the fields. But probably the key difference is that life aims and expectations are so different - this is actually what the women want, rather than being an issue of no access to birth control.

Bearing many children is their goal, being fertile and having a large family is valued over all else. As the author says “women fervently desire the maximum number of surviving children”. Giving birth to their tenth child is possibly the equivalent in our society of a lawyer becoming partner of their firm or a doctor being made consultant. It is the pinnacle. In fact, women proactively take steps to keep getting pregnant on a regular basis. If their husband stops visiting them or he becomes impotent, they are entitled to go to his brother to get ‘impregnated’ for the rest of her childbearing years.

It seems people will do almost anything if it's culturally appropriate

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If you want to read more yourself, have a look at:

LeVine, R., Dixon, S (1996) Childcare and Culture; Lessons from Africa  New York: Cambridge University Press

http://www.who.int/topics/maternal_health/en/