Abstract
This is a study of social and biological factors that determine reproduction, with special reference to the situation in Jamaica. Lack of recent demographic data for this country limits the amount of close demographic analysis presented. Fortunately it is possible at several points to rely on biological and associated material from surveys conducted in recent years. Special attention is paid to the Jamaican family, the main focus of reproduction, and to the question whether its forms may have changed since the period of slavery. Other elements which directly influence reproduction are treated - levels of mortality, migration, types of family forms, breastfeeding, childlessness and policies of fertility control. Because the menstrual cycle is so intimately involved in all features of reproduction, a considerable portion of the study is devoted to it. Reviews of literature on the menstrual cycle serve as a background against which to discuss material on the subject derived from Jamaican surveys. Besides such aspects as age at menarche, irregularity, and age at menopause, behavioural aspects of the cycle are also taken up. Among these are dysmenorrhoea, the premenstrual syndrome, mood changes, the menopausal syndrome, assessment of blood loss, protection used, and relations between the timing of coitus and the cycle. Breastfeeding, playing a prominent role in infant care, may also constitute a method of fertility control. Again a review of the literature on this topic serves as a background against which the position of Jamaica is presented. Among the specific aspects of this topic taken up here are duration of breastfeeding, hazards attendant on its decline and postpartum amenorrhoea. Common terminology, for the human reproductive systems, as indicators of knowledge and a communications guide are analysed from a sample of both sexes. As a conclusion to the study factors to which further attention may be profitably directed are indicated. Many of these centre around the family itself, but others more clearly biological in nature are also identified.