Women’s fertility and allostatic load in the post-reproductive years: An analysis of the Indonesian Family Life Survey

Abstract

We know little about the effects of the reproductive health burden in contexts where unsafe abortions, miscarriages, stillbirths, and low-quality maternal care are common. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of allostatic load to understand the impact of reproductive histories on later-life health. We applied path models to the Indonesian Family Life Survey with a sample of 2,001 women aged 40+. Although number of children was not associated with allostatic load, pregnancies not ending in live birth and parenthood before age 18 were both negatively associated with health. We also identified clear cohort and educational effects and a possible rural advantage. Our contribution is twofold: we highlight the importance of reproductive histories beyond live births on women’s later-life health in a context of increasing population ageing, and we demonstrate the applicability of using allostatic load to measure health outside the Global North.

Keywords:

• allostatic load
• women’s health
• fertility
• pregnancy
• life course
• Indonesia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Tiziana Leone is based at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, UK. Heini Väisänen is based at INED, France, and also the University of Southampton, UK. Firman Witoelar is based at the Australian National University, Australia.

2 Please direct all correspondence to Tiziana Leone, Dept of International Development, Houghton St, London, WC2A 2AE, UK; or by E-mail: [email protected].

3 We would like to thank the colleagues that took the time to read and comment on previous versions of this paper. These include reading groups at the LSE and Dr Laura Sochas at the University of Oxford.