Browsing by Subject "Reproduction"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Gender and reproductive decision making among couples with HIV/AIDS in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    (2006) Ndlovu, Vezumuzi
    Gender, the culturally constructed social relations between men and women, plays an important role in determining not only the role and place of both sexes in society but also impacts the distribution of power between the sexes. Men, especially in patriarchal settings, have been observed to dominate women economically, politically and even sexually. Thus men generally exercise power over women. This article explores the impact of gender on reproductive and sexual decision-making among couples with HIV/AIDS. It discusses the decision-making process itself and then examines how gender and the exercise of power influence the decisions or choices made by these couples. Based on a sample of HIV-positive couples from Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), an important observation that this paper makes concerns the lack of male dominance in decision-making among these couples. This is explained in terms of high level of HIV/AIDS awareness among the study sample, the high cost of parental investment to women as well as the behavioural change necessitated by an HIVpositive diagnosis.
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    Gendering the Therapeutic Citizen: ARVs and Reproductive Health
    (2006) Richey, Lisa Ann
    Reproductive Health as a global agenda can provide an opportunity for including “social issues” under its vast umbrella. However, so far reproductive health has failed to go beyond family planning in large-scale, high impact interventions. Now, the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has meant that the primary reproductive health goal of many African women in highly affected communities is to remain healthy long enough to reproduce. The case of ARV treatment in a township clinic in South Africa will demonstrate the need for a genuinely integrated global concept of reproductive health and rights that includes the realities of AIDS and its treatment. This research is in some respects an anthropological examination of AIDS interventions from a political standpoint. In this paper I examine the other side of the issue of AIDS and family planning integration: how are family planning technologies and contraceptive decision making integrated into HIV/AIDS treatment clinics? Reproductive decision making in the context of the AIDS clinic reignites classic debates over the rights of the individual versus the rights of the community, the meanings of motherhood and maternal identity, and the appropriate control of sexuality by the state vis a vis governance of the self. Yet, in the situation of reproductive decision making by HIV positive women, the stakes are higher, the boundaries less discernible, and the meanings even more contingent by the urgency of the disease and the poignancy of the processes of giving life. To begin to understand this, I argue, we must find a way to gender the therapeutic citizen in order to reintegrate the biopolitical struggle of ARVs with the “social issues” percolating within the therapeutic state.
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    The impact of HAART on the reproductive decision making process of HIV positive people in Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    (2006) Ndlovu, Vezumuzi
    This article explores how the advent of HAART has impacted the fertility plans of people with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. It argues that HAART has had a significant impact on the outlook that HIV-positive people have on reproduction and health in general especially among those who intend to continue with childbearing. The results section presents responses from HIV-positive people who intend to continue with child bearing with regard to how the advent of HAART has impacted their views and decisions on this issue. The discussion evaluates, from a broader perspective, whether the views concerning HAART and reproduction expressed by those who intend to reproduce are justifiable. The article concludes that it is mainly the availability and efficacy of HAART that has motivated some HIV-positive people to continue pursuing their childbearing plans..
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    Is multiple nest building an adequate strategy to cope with inter-species nest usurpation?
    (2016) Sumasgutner, Petra; Millán, Juan; CURTIS, ODETTE; Koelsag, Ann; AMAR, ARJUN
    Abstract Background Black sparrowhawks (Accipiter melanoleucus) recently colonised the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, where the species faces competition for their nest sites from Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca) which frequently usurp black sparrowhawk nests. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that multiple nest building by black sparrowhawks is a strategy to cope with this competitor, based on a 14-year long term data set. Results Two main results support the hypothesis: first, the numbers of intact nests per breeding season in black sparrowhawk territories increased as levels of geese interactions increased, specifically when usurpation occurred. Usurpation occurred significantly more often at nests later in the season, and may provide a further explanation for the advancement of the black sparrowhawk breeding season towards earlier breeding attempts which results in an overall extension of the breeding period (over 9 months) that has been found in our study population. Second, nest usurpation had a negative impact on black sparrowhawks’ reproductive performance at the ‘nest’ level, but not at the ‘territory’ level when multiple nests were available within the same breeding season, suggesting that this strategy was effective for dealing with this competitor. However, our results do not rule out long term negative consequences of these interactions, for example, reduced adult survival rates or reduced lifetime reproductive success, due to the higher energy demand required to build several nests each breeding season. Conclusions Our results suggest that black sparrowhawks avoid direct conflict with this large and aggressive competitor and instead choose the passive strategy in allocating more resources to multiple nest building. Our research further highlights the importance of behavioural plasticity, which might be especially important for city-dwelling species in the face of global urbanisation.
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    Melanin-specific life-history strategies
    (2014) Emaresi, Guillaume; Bize, Pierre; Altwegg, Res; Henry, Isabelle; van den Brink, Valentijn; Gasparini, Julien; Roulin, Alexandre
    Abstract The maintenance of genetic variation is a long-standing issue because the adaptive value of life-history strategies associated with each genetic variant is usually unknown. However, evidence for the coexistence of alternative evolutionary fixed strategies at the population level remains scarce. Because in the tawny owl (Strix aluco) heritable melanin-based coloration shows different physiological and behavioral norms of reaction, we investigated whether coloration is associated with investment in maintenance and reproduction. Light melanic owls had lower adult survival compared to dark melanic conspecifics, and color variation was related to the trade-off between offspring number and quality. When we experimentally enlarged brood size, light melanic males produced more fledglings but in poorer condition, and they were less often recruited in the local breeding population than those of darker melanic conspecifics. Our results also suggest that dark melanic males allocate a constant effort to raise their brood independently of environmental conditions, whereas lighter melanic males finely adjust reproductive effort in relation to changes in environmental conditions. Color traits can therefore be associated with life-history strategies, and stochastic environmental perturbation can temporarily favor one phenotype over others. The existence of fixed strategies implies that some phenotypes can sometimes display a "maladapted" strategy. Long-term population monitoring is therefore vital for a full understanding of how different genotypes deal with trade-offs.
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    Visual health assessment of parous female southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off the southern Cape coast, South Africa
    (2019) Hörbst, Sandra; Moloney, Coleen; Vermeulen, Els
    The long-term monitoring of the South African southern right whale population has revealed a decrease in sightings along the coast and an increase of calving intervals within the last few years, causing changes in the species´ demographics causing a decrease in annual population growth rate (6.5% y -1 ). Because reproductive success is linked to body condition, the purpose of this study was to conduct a visual health assessment based on overhead photographs from the annual aerial southern right whale surveys and detect potential links between visual health condition of parous females and the increased calving intervals. Additionally, it was aimed to find relationships between visual health of parous females and environmental indices of the Southern Ocean, representing food availability. To allow global comparison of the results, the method used for the visual health assessment was developed in collaboration with international southern right whale researchers from Australia and South Africa. The health indices were adapted from a visual health assessment method developed for northern right whales and include body condition, skin condition, the presence of cyamids around the blowholes and rake marks on the skin. The results showed that these health variables derived from overhead photographs were sufficient to detect visual health changes over time. Within the study period (2005 – 2017), there were two years in which whales had a significant decreased visual health (i.e. increased health score) than average; 2008 and 2014. No direct link between the observed health condition and calving intervals could be found, possibly due to the lack of data on calving intervals post-2014 as well asthe assessment of breeding females only (i.e. breeding females are in good enough conditions to reproduce). However, significant relationships were found between visual health and Southern Ocean productivity (p< 0.001) and climate indices (p < 0.05) with a 0-year lag. These results clearly indicate a link between southern right whale visual health condition and Southern Ocean food availability in one feeding ground, suggesting that this may be the primary feeding ground for parous females during pregnancy. Understanding the links between visual health, reproductive success and climate/food availability helps to understand changes in the population’s demographics and to predict the resilience of the species. Additionally, the standardization of the method allows for global comparison.