FERTILITY AND FECUNDITY

KEY TERMS  Fertility:  Refers to the actual reproduction  A woman is fertile if she has born or is bearing offspring  Infertility:  one year of trying to conceive and being unsuccessful  Fecundity:  The Ability to reproduce; once a girl reaches menarche, she is fecund

WHAT ARE SOME FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE FERTILITY RATES?  Religion  Careers  Contraceptives  Societal pressures  Reproductive technologies  Infertility  STDs  Low sperm counts  Delaying childbirth  Government Programs  Conflicts/War  Women’s rights and Education  Poverty  HIV/AIDS

IMPACTS OF FERTILITY/INFERTILITY  What impacts do fertility and infertility have on couples?  Birth control and family planning  Decision on having children  Pressure society places on couples to reproduce  The choice is taken away from them (infertile)

IMPACT ON SOCIETY  What impacts do fertility and infertility have on society?  Decisions to have children affect fertility rates  As birth rates decline our society ages places a greater burden on pension and health care systems  Declining birth rates impact immigration rates as increasing immigration allows for population rates to remain stable

WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS ON SOCIETY?  Overpopulation:  Starvation, drain of water supplies and resources  Under population:  Strain on society; burden on the young to support the elderly

WORLD POPULATION TRENDS  1830s= 1 billion people  100 years later = 2 billion  30 years later = 3 billion  12.5 years later= world jumps from 4 billion to 5  In 2011 = 7 Billion  In 2012 are we growing or declining?

WORLD POPULATION TRENDS  Population rates are falling in both developed and developing countries  95% of the world’s population growth is happening in the developing world. Even in the developing world, women are having fewer children  Why?  Contraceptive and the changing role of women

TRENDS  Developed Worlds:  Immigration: need to allow huge numbers of immigrants to maintain a stable population  Only the U.S. is replacing itself through high immigration and fertility  Only Northwest Territories and Nunavut show birth rates above the replacement level (# of births required to maintain stable population)  In Germany, Italy and Sweden= deaths outnumber births

CASE STUDY  Read the case study on pages and answer Questions 1 and 2