Tuesday, 29th of March 2011 |
Nothing predicts child survival better than birth intervals. The longer the gap between pregnancies, the higher the chances of survival. For those who missed it last year, see Shea Rustein's 'Effects of Preceding Birth Intervals on Neonatal, Infant, and Under-Five-Years Mortality' at http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/WP41/WP41.pdf
Full text of the article summarized below is at http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/AS2/AS2.pdf
Good reading.
BD
Executive Summary
Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from 20 sub-Saharan countries, this article compares women’s actual lengths of birth intervals to preferred lengths and assesses the implications of the difference for selected demographic and health indicators. The results show a clear pattern.
Women prefer much longer birth intervals than they actually have in Comoros,
Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe, compared with women in the other
15 countries studied. As a consequence, the potential effects of spacing
preferences on the level of fertility, as well as on the prevalences of short birth
intervals (less than 24 months) and child malnutrition, are greatest in the same
five countries. An explanation based on the observed sharp decline in fertility
recently experienced by these five “forerunners” is offered for this pattern.
The covariates of preferred birth interval lengths are also examined. In
general, women who know, approve of, discuss, and use family planning
prefer longer intervals than their counterparts. The educational attainment of
husbands matters more than that of female respondents in determining spacing
preferences. For nine countries that have conducted more than one survey, an
average increase of six months in the length of preferred intervals is
documented.
Similarly, data from 12 countries that conducted a survey in the
mid- or late 1990s show an increase in the actual lengths of birth intervals; the
magnitude of the increase is higher in the most recent period studied (when
intervals starting in the 1980s are compared with intervals starting in the
1990s). The policy and program relevance of these results is discussed.
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