Despite a long tradition of studying the relationship between education and fertility outcomes less is known about how educational differences in fertility intentions are formed and translated into achieved births over the life course. This paper provides new insights using data from a large cohort study and Miller's Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour framework for understanding childbearing. ...

Chinese Meishan pigs produce three to five more pigs per litter than less-prolific U.S. or European pig breeds as a result of a markedly decreased placental size and an increased pig weight: placental weight ratio (placental efficiency). We hypothesized that as a result of their intense selection for prolificacy, the Chinese had indirectly selected for a smaller, more efficient placenta in the ...

BACKGROUND Birth order is associated with outcomes such as birth weight and adult socioeconomic position (SEP), but little is known about the association with adult height. This potential birth order-height association is important because height predicts health, and because the association may help explain population-level height trends. We studied the birth order-height association and whethe...

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic inequalities in birth weight and in body mass index (BMI) later in childhood are in opposite directions, which raises questions about when during childhood the change in direction happens. We examined how maternal and paternal education and household income were associated with birthweight z-scores and with BMI z-scores at age 5 and 12 months and 7 years, and we examine...

Introduction Contraceptive discontinuation is a worldwide incident that may be connected with low incentive to avoid pregnancy. Contraceptive discontinuation highly contributes to unplanned pregnancy and unwanted births. Objectives The objective of this study was to observe the prevalence of discontinuation and switching of contraceptive methods among Bangladeshi married women. In addition, t...

The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Composition on Children's Education Among the perceived inputs in the “production” of child quality is family size; there is an extensive theoretical literature that postulates a tradeoff between child quantity and quality within a family. However, there is little causal evidence that speaks to this theory. Our analysis is able to overcome many limitat...