Motherhood and subsistence work: the Tamang of rural Nepal

Minute-by-minute observation of individual women over the period of a year provides a reliable and valuable description of their daily activities. The extent to which Nepalese rural women vary their subsistence responsibilities during pregnancy and lactation is examined by comparing mothers with a non-childbearing sample. The remarkable behavioral similarity between the two groups of women when workloads are high is explained by reference to childcare practices and labor constraints prevailing in the community.