National Fertility Study, 1965

The National Fertility Study was conducted in March of 1965 and resulted in 5617 completed interviews. The sample includes currently married women, living with their husbands, in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) age 14 to 55 years. Includes1201 African American women. Women were asked questions about fertility and contraception, including contraceptive use and pregnancy histories, opinions on childbearing and childrearing, desired family size, future childbearing intentions and expectation of further children. Questions about coital frequency at the time of interview were asked. Marital history and some labor force participation history were recorded. Background information such as education, income, religion, social characteristics, and place of residence was also collected. The live birth history contains questions about length of breastfeeding and survival staus of the child. The pregnancy history contains questions about methods of contraception used and childbearing intentions at the time of conception. Detailed results of the survey may be found in Reproduction in the United States, 1965, by Norman B. Ryder and Charles F. Westoff (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1971)