Estratégias reprodutivas e evolução da fronteira agrícola na Amazônia brasileira: um estudo qualitativo em Machadinho d’Oeste

Abstract

We analyze the reproductive strategies of two cohorts of women whose reproductive period was experienced in different stages of the agricultural frontier evolution in the Brazilian Amazon. Reproductive strategy consists of certain reproductive and contraceptive behaviors adjusted to the possibilities and adversities offered in the context of the frontier. We evaluate changes in reproductive and contraceptive strategies throughout the development process of the agricultural frontier. The different conditions throughout the development stages offered by the frontier would trigger different reproductive strategies, thus decisions would be different for women that lived their reproductive period during initial or more advanced stages of the frontier. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 60 women in Machadinho d’Oeste, Rondônia. Despite what the literature claims, the results indicate that there is no direct relationship between land use and number of children. Rather, the reproductive behavior of each cohort is related to the infrastructure of sexual and reproductive health services and to individual and frontier socioeconomic conditions. Despite the differences, union and childbearing occur at young ages in either stage, with a reasonable proportion of pregnancy due to contraceptive failure as well as a high rate of female surgical sterilization.