A Behavioral Ecology Approach to Trade-offs in Reproduction: Modelling Women’s Reproductive Strategies and Empirical Studies of Post-partum Amenorrhea

Reproductive behaviors are shaped by a plethora of selective pressures, past and present. On an ecological time scale, reproductive “decisions” are made by balancing life-history trade-offs that are dependent on intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as resource availability and age. Mathematical models are powerful tools that allow for the systematic investigation of such factors, and to test whether selective forces thought to be responsible for particular traits had been correctly identified. In this thesis, I present a dynamic state variable model for the optimization of reproductive scheduling under a range of family and environmental contexts. Next, I test one of the model’s simplifying assumptions, that sons and daughters cost the same to produce and to raise, via secondary data analysis of two existing data sets. These results are discussed in parallel to the benefits of applying principles of evolutionary ecology to public health problems.