ID#: 12172
Caption:
This 1963 image depicted a Pagei Province, Papua New Guinea family, including a husband at far left, his two wives, and four children, all the offspring of the wife standing in the middle. What is of importance here, is the dramatic physical differences between the two women. The older mother’s physical appearance illustrates what is known as maternal depletion syndrome, which resulted from repeated childbearing, and prolonged lactation, which depleted her of nutrients, in a region of the world that offered little in the way of nutritional resources. At far right, the younger woman, who had born no children, appeared robust and healthy. Maternal depletion syndrome results, when a woman does not take enough time in between births to restore her nutritional reserves, thereby, depleting her of the nutrition needed to restore her body mass, and energy.
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Content Provider(s): CDC/ Clement Benjamin
Creation Date: 1963
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