ATTENUATION OF NURSING-RELATED OVARIAN SUPPRESSION AND HIGH FERTILITYIN WELL-NOURISHED, INTENSIVELY BREAST-FEEDING AMELE WOMEN OF LOWLAND PAPUA-NEW-GUINEA

Intense, sustained nursing lengthens inter-birth intervals and is caus ally linked with low natural fertility. However, in traditional settin gs, the effects of such nursing on fertility are difficult to disentan gle from those of nutrition. Results from a prospective, direct observ ational study of reproductive function in well-nourished Amele women w ho nurse intensively and persistently but who also have high fertility are here presented. Endocrine measures show that ovarian activity res umes by median 11.0 months postpartum. Median duration of postpartum a menorrhoea is 11.3 months, time to next conception is 19.0 months, and the inter-birth interval is 28.0 months. Average life time fertility is 6-8. High fertility in Amele women is due both to refractoriness of reproductive function to suckling stimuli, and to maintenance of equi valent age-specific fertility rates across the reproductive life span.