While the primary, culturally endorsed prototype for parenthood in the United States is one of marriage, followed by conception and birth, recent studies (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1969; U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1968a) have shown substantial departure from this traditional childbearing pattern and deviations in timing within different patterns. Two deviations of the marriage-conception-birth sequence will be considered here: premaritally conceived births (babies who were conceived before the marriage of their biological parents but whose birth certificate was registered as legitimate, i.e., carrying nondiscrepant parent surnames), and out-of-wedlock births (babies who were conceived and born outside of marriage and whose birth certificate indicated no father's name or discrepant surnames for mother and father). Although in all past and present societies, some proportion of marital births occur soon after marriage and are likely to have been premaritally conceived (Monahan, 1960), the extent of premarital conception, the societal reaction, and personal and social consequences of the phenomenon have been noted to be different (Christensen, 1960). Premaritally conceived births in some countries are very common and have been interpreted as a component of a stable and integrated cultural pattern with few undesirable personal and social sequelae (Christensen, 1960; Croog, 1952), while in others the phenomenon is less frequent and is thought of as being socially deviant, necessitating hasty marriages and increasing the probability of marital dissolution (Christensen, 1960, 1963). Different timing patterns of conception after marriage and variations in frequency of premarital conception are generally considered as prime examples of cultural relativism in effect (Christensen, 1960). Cultural reactions to differential timing of birth after marriage must be distinguished from the historically dominant attitudes toward out-of-wedlock births. While most communities are relatively tolerant about nonmarital conceptions as long as marriage is forthcoming (Monahan, 1960), there is little historical evidence that any society has formally condoned illegitimate fertility (Davis, 1939; Malinowski, 1930).