Famine, Maternal Nutrition and Infant Mortality: A Re-examination of the Dutch Hunger Winter

During the Dutch Hunger Winter (1945), a unique, documented example of mass famine in an industrialized population, total reproductive loss (fetal and infant mortality) among most exposed mothers remained relatively low. This is explained by highly favourable fetal mortality and unfavourable infant...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population studies 1993-03, Vol.47 (1), p.27-46
Main Author: Hart, Nicky
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1944-1945
Child Welfare - history
Conception
Demography
Diet - history
Famine
Food rationing
Food shortages
History
History of medicine
History, Modern 1601
Hunger
Infant Mortality
Infants
Maternal nutrition
Mortality
Netherlands
Nutrition
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Relationship
Reproduction
Social research
Statistics as Topic - history
Stillbirth
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:During the Dutch Hunger Winter (1945), a unique, documented example of mass famine in an industrialized population, total reproductive loss (fetal and infant mortality) among most exposed mothers remained relatively low. This is explained by highly favourable fetal mortality and unfavourable infant mortality. The author traces the pattern of low fetal mortality to the higher levels of 'embodied health status' of famine mothers. The high infant mortality of the famine area testifies to the severity of the food and fuel shortage, yet another factor held down the rate of stillbirth. This other factor, it is argued, has a socio-economic character, it is the intrinsic 'embodied' nutritional status of the regional population, arising from favourable opportunities for growth and development among successive generations of mothers. This explanation highlights the importance of maternal vitality, (a synthetic, historically variable and culturally determined phenomenon) as a neglected feature of historical demography.
ISSN:0032-4728
1477-4747
DOI:10.1080/0032472031000146716