The data of the Population Labour Force and Migration (PLM) Survey of 1979-1980 was analyzed in order to study spacing between births as well as differentials in urban and rural areas, differentials by age at marriage, urbanization, education, work pattern, and contraceptive use. The median intervals from PLM Survey of 1979-80 and Pakistan Fertility Survey (PFS) of 1975 birth histories were co...

The majority of mothers in developing countries start nursing their babies after birth and continue for one to two years.1 One reason that nursing in developing countries is common and prolonged is the widespread belief that it is effective in postponing the next conception (Association Algerienne, 1971; Jelliffe, 1967; Marzouk, 1972; Niehoff and Meister, 1972; Wyon and Gordon, 1971; and Yaukey...

BACKGROUND Studies examining the associations between short birth spacing and child mortality have often concentrated on the strength of the associations whilst the public health importance of short spacing in specific communities has received less attention. This study re-examines the association between short birth intervals and child mortality in rural Senegal and discusses the potential dir...

CONTEXT Family planning efforts achieved considerable success in Sri Lanka during the late 20th century; however, overall levels and trends may mask relatively high levels of unmet need under certain conditions. METHODS Data from the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey of Sri Lanka (DHS-SL) were used to estimate unmet need for limiting and spacing births among ever-married women aged 15-49, ov...

Background In sub-Saharan Africa, few studies have stressed the importance of spatial heterogeneity analysis in modern contraceptive use and the relationships with high-risk births. Objective This paper aims to analyse the association between modern contraceptive use, distribution of birth risk, and under-five child mortality at both national and regional levels in Burkina Faso. Design The last...

Reported are the results of a community-based prospective study in four urban squatter settlements in Karachi that was carried out to assess the incidence of and risk factors for intrauterine growth retardation. The incidence of term intrauterine growth retardation was 24.4% among 738 singleton births. The socioeconomic and biological risk factors that were found to be statistically significant...

The present paper reports the results of a within and between family analysis of the relation between birth order and intelligence. The material comprises more than a quarter of a million test scores for intellectual performance of Norwegian male conscripts recorded during 1984–2004. Conscripts, mostly 18–19 years of age, were born to women for whom almost complete reproductive histories were o...

Demographic and Health Survey data from 18 countries were analyzed to better understand the characteristics of women wishing to limit childbearing. Demand for limiting (14% of all women) is less than that that for spacing (25%) but is still substantial. The mean "demand crossover age" (the average age at which demand to limit births begins to exceed demand to space) is generally around age 33, ...