POST PARTUM AMENORRHOEA DIFFERENTIALS AND PATTERNING IN A RURAL PACIFIC ISLAND POPULATION

Retrospective demographic and ethnographic data collected on the South-Eastern Micronesian atoll of Butaritari are employed to test for factors affecting the differentials and patterning of post partum amenorrhoea in this well-nourished population. Of the covariates examined in a hazards model, mother's age at the birth of the child and cessation of breastfeeding failed to have any statistically significant effect on the duration of post partum amenorrhoea. Comparing these results with those for other ‘anthropological’ populations, we conclude that relatively rapid post partum returns of menses may be characteristic of Pacific Island populations. However, we propose that there is no evidence that patterns of post partum amenorrhoea in these ‘robust’ groups are expected in reference to breastfeeding variables. Rather, we suggest an interesting and important feature of these populations, as indicated by the Butaritari case, may be the lack of any maternal age effect on the resumption of menses post partum.