THE NATALITY OF SERBS IN KOSOV SERBS IN KOSOVO AND MET AND METOHIJA

<p>The birthrate in Serbia has been falling and we are the last country in Europe according the number of newborn children. The aim of this study was to establish the birthrate trend during the period of five years on the territory of Central Kosovo and Metohija, according the data of Gynecology- Obstetrics Clinic/Gracanica, to indicate the importance of an improvement of women's health care, increase the birthrate and population growth rate. There was used a retrospective method of examination of the data from the maternity hospital register in Gracanica. There were also used the data from the death registry in the local community of Donja Gusterica and the records of students enrolled into the first grade of Primary School in Donja Gusterica. During the period from March 2002 to August 2005 there were born 1718 children (912 boys and 806 girls). There is almost no family on this territory with less than three children and there is a significant number of families with four or five children. The number of women who bore six times was 24, seven times was 13 and eight times was 11 while there were two women who born the ninth child and one woman who bore the eleventh child. During the five-year period, on the territory of local community of Donja Gusterica, there died 169 people while, at the same time, the number of students enrolled into the first grade of primary School was 293. An important contribution to growth of natality is an improvement of the women's health care. There was noticed a constant increase in number of newborn children for the mentioned period as well as a significant increase in population growth rate in Central Kosmet</p>