3 results
9 - Maternal Mortality in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1945
- Edited by Theo Engelen, John R. Shephard, Yang Wen-shan
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- Book:
- Death at the Opposite Ends of the Eurasian Continent
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 22 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 July 2012, pp 229-274
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Summary
Maternal mortality is an important measure of the standard of living in societies both in the past and at present. Recent research on maternal mortality has focused on its relation to fertility behavior, infant mortality, and broader trends in death rates and sex differential mortality (Chen et al. 1974, Hieu 1999, Loudon 1992). Difficulties in collecting data and constructing measures to estimate maternal mortality have also received the attention of scholars (Bouvier-Colle et al. 1991; Graham 1989; Rutenberg et al.; Stanton et al. 1996; Stecklov 1995). Results from studies like these have had considerable impact on development policies.
Maternal mortality rates and trends are inextricably intertwined with family and gender systems. Few scholars have compared maternal mortality in two societies like the Taiwanese and the Dutch where these systems are radically different. In this article we compare data drawn from the Taiwanese household registers, vital statistics reports, and censuses from the Japanese colonial period (1906-1945) with comparable data from the Netherlands (1850-1920). During these periods, we examine the demographic characteristics as well as the institutional and cultural contexts relevant to a comparison of maternal death rates in both countries. Register data for colonial Taiwan show that the number of deaths per 1000 women age 15 to 49 averaged 9.4 ; the comparable rate for the Netherlands 1850-1920 averaged between 5.6 and 6.3 (see Tables 7A- 7D). In the same periods, the general fertility rate (births per 1000 women 15-49 per year) was 233.6 for Taiwan and 134 for the Netherlands.
Midwives were chiefly responsible for delivering births in both Taiwan and the Netherlands, and thus we begin by discussing maternal care during the research period and the effect midwives may have had on the level of maternal mortality. We also introduce the data sets used as well as the statistical measures employed to measure maternal mortality. The second section of the paper provides for an overview of mortality in the two countries by comparing female and maternal mortality in both countries and contrasting male to female death rates. In the third part of the paper we turn our attention to factors increasing the risk of maternal death, including maternal age, parity and birth interval. Fourthly we discuss the relation between maternal and infant mortality.
3 - Mortality in the Netherlands: General Development and Regional Differences
- Edited by Theo Engelen, John R. Shephard, Yang Wen-shan
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- Book:
- Death at the Opposite Ends of the Eurasian Continent
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 22 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 July 2012, pp 81-98
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Summary
The epidemiological transition
The decline of mortality in Europe throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is generally referred to as the epidemiological transition. The first phase of the transition was a decline of mortality from a period of wars, pestilence and “famine” (Meuvret 1946; Flinn 1981) that had been characterized by both structurally high levels of mortality and incidental outbursts of very high mortality peaks, mainly following bad harvest years. In the second phase, declines in deaths due to infectious diseases brought a broad mortality decline. This lasted until well into the twentieth century, when mortality decreased to a low and stable level. During the third phase it was not the level of mortality that changed, but rather the character. Malnutrition and infectious diseases ceased to be the main causes of death. Instead, cardio-vascular diseases and cancer took their place as well as external causes like murder, suicide and accidents (Omran 1971 and 1983).
By the end of the eighteenth century, death was still in the first phase of this transition and thus at a high level, between 30 and 40 deaths per year per 1000 of the population. Population levels nevertheless remained approximately even due to high fertility rates. During epidemics of the plague, smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, malaria and tuberculosis, aggravated by subsistence crises, mortality exceeded fertility. Infants and the elderly were particularly vulnerable and during these epidemics the population in parts of Europe could be decimated. In the Netherlands, though, the effects of the epidemics were not as disastrous as they could be elsewhere in Europe. Dutch agriculture had long been highly commercialized and the various parts of the country were as well connected with each other as with other countries, resulting in a steady supply of food.
It has proven impossible to point out a single reason for the decline of mortality that marked the second phase of the epidemiological transition. The mortality decline started at the time of industrialization, which entailed unhealthy working conditions and unsanitary, crowded living conditions in the cities, which could hardly have improved the health of the population. On the other hand we know that the agrarian revolution that preceded industrialization, as well as the economic growth that resulted from it, improved the standard of living considerably.
Stemming the Current: Dutch Jewish Women and the First Feminist Movement
- Edited by Judith Frishman, Hetty Berg, J. de Jong, W. Koetsenruijter
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- Book:
- Dutch Jewry in a Cultural Maelstrom, 1880-1940
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 26 January 2021
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- 03 October 2008, pp 169-182
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At the start of the twentieth century, life in the Netherlands continued to be as tempestuous as it had been since the second half of the nineteenth century. The demographic transition characterized by a steep decline in the mortality rate followed by a gradual decline in the fertility rate led to a rapid growth in population. This altered the composition of the citizenry irreversibly by introducing the demographic pattern of the modern family with two or three children and a keen awareness of family planning. Industrialization and economic growth resulted in increasing prosperity that for once did not completely pass over the lower social classes. The estate-based social framework slowly gave way to a more open class structure. Politics evolved from a pleasant (and profitable) pursuit of the upper classes into a means of power and a common right of the middle and lower classes. Being able to address the crowd and win the vote demanded techniques we now recognize to be characteristic of mass organizations. Far-reaching cultural influences like scientific innovation and radical artistic trends complete the image of a society turned topsyturvy.
All Western European countries underwent this dramatic development, and in all these countries the societal realization that the assumed way of life of pre-industrial society was over and forever done with resulted in widespread bewilderment and a desire for a redefinition of social identity. In the Netherlands, the powerful influence of competing Christian denominations and political ideologies guided this sense of loss to what we now call pillarization – the compartmentalization of social, economic, political and cultural life along religious and ideological lines. From maternity nursing and primary school, to leisure organizations and trade unions: all was organized individually by each religious denomination or ideological group – be it Protestant, Catholic, Socialist, or Liberal. In this way, pillarization worked as a kind of social filter. The different pillars guided their members through the demographic, socio-economic, political, and cultural transformations of the early twentieth century.
One of the social movements contributing to the chaotic climate of the time was the women's movement. In Europe, the first feminist movement evolved in the second half of the nineteenth century. Little by little, women started to unite in order to change some aspects of their social position, which was unequal to that of men in economic, legal, political, educational, and cultural spheres.