Maternal depletion and infant mortality

Maternal depletion refers to the possibility of ongoing decline in physical health during the reproductive life of a woman. It is the result of the growing metabolic burden of successive gestations and periods of lactation in societies where birth intervals are short. Especially when food is in short supply mothers will not be able to recover from a previous pregnancy before the next starts. Thus, depletion is a threat for all women experiencing short intervals between births. It is an even more serious threat for women growing older, since their recuperation takes longer (Wood 1994; Ellison 2001). This phenomenon has