Abstract

NAZAR-BEUTELSPACHER, Austreberta; ZAPATA-MARTELO, Emma  and  VAZQUEZ-GARCIA, Verónica. Population policies and women's nutrition: a study on six rural communities in Chiapas, México. agric. soc. desarro [online]. 2004, vol.1, n.2, pp.147-162. ISSN 1870-5472.

This work set out to explore the relationship between the official family planning discourse which contends that limiting the number of children favors health and the nutritional status of women. The objective was to evaluate whether the use of contraceptives has a positive impact on their well-being. To answer this question, we drew upon data collected in six rural communities of Chiapas that are broadly covered by family planning programs. We classified said communities according to the productive activities they perform (if they are for self-consumption or for the market) and of the participation of women in them. The nutritional status of women did not significantly correlate with their number of children, neither with lactations' duration or birth spacing intervals. Socioeconomic factors of the household groups (not of the communities), as well as those of women in particular, were the main determinants of their nutritional status. Using the maternal depletion syndrome as an explanation of the nutritional status of mothers, and as an argument for family planning programs is inadequate if the socioeconomic and gender conditions of mothers are not considered.

Keywords : Well-being; gender; contraceptive methods; salpingectomy; maternal depletion syndrome.