Family Contexts of Fertility and Infant Survival in Nineteenth-Century Montreal

Abstract

In the cohort of 4000 infants born in Montreal in 1859, the cultural context showed a powerful influence on infant mortality: more French Canadian infants died in their first year than Protestant or Irish Catholic. Socio-economic status shows no effect on infant mortality, although in each cultural community the wealthy had a higher birth rate than the poor. A higher birth rate to French Canadian mothers can be attributed entirely to the larger number of deaths followed by prompt “replacement.” Among mothers whose infants survived twelve months, all three communities show the same median birth intervals, indicative of a high fertility, apparently regulated by breastfeeding. The summer concentration of infant deaths nevertheless points to diarrheal diseases and differences of infant feeding.

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