Conflicts and son preference: Micro-level evidence from 58 countries

"The Dark Farewell to the Light of Life": A Qualitative Study About Prenatal Loss

AIM

This study was conducted to determine the experiences of women who encountered loss in the prenatal period.

METHOD

This study was a qualitative study conducted using the phenomenological method and was conducted according to the guidelines of the COREQ checklist. A total of 11 women who were experienced loss in the early prenatal period were interviewed. The data were analyzed using the content analysis.

RESULTS

Three main themes and eight sub-themes emerged. The themes were light of life (bubble of happiness, journey), dark farewell (silent scream inside, unfinished tale: motherhood, loneliness, family approach) and obscurity (uncertainty about the future, need for support). Women expressed that the loss process had negative effects on their mental health and that they needed help.

CONCLUSION

Pregnancy illuminates women's lives, while prenatal loss involves intense and various negative emotions, and women need support in many ways. These results show that women who experienced loss in the prenatal period should be allowed to express their feelings, thoughts and experiences, and the risks in terms of mental health should be reduced by supporting them during the loss and mourning process.

Parental gender preferences over three centuries: Evidence from Argentina

In this paper I examine the evolution of parental gender preferences in Argentina (i.e., parents who prefer a certain gender composition in their children). To do this, I use census microdata that spans the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The estimation strategy exploits the plausibly random assignment in the gender of children. The results show a persistent preference for a mixed gender composition (i.e., having at least one boy and one girl) instead of children of the same gender. This translates into an increase in the probability of having a third child, conditional on already having two children of between 9%-23% for those couples who have children of the same gender -in relation to couples with children of opposite genders-. These preferences are heterogeneous over time and have important implications in terms of fertility (i.e., the reduction of these mixed gender preferences -in favor of greater gender-neutrality- could contribute to reducing the number of children per couple). In addition, the findings of this work support the empirical literature that uses the gender composition of the first two children as an instrumental variable to study the impact of fertility on labor participation.