Birth Spacing

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BIRTH SPACING What is BIRTH SPACING? Birth Spacing is the practice of waiting between pregnancies. A woman’s body needs to rest following pregnancy. After having a baby, it is a good idea to wait at least 18 months before getting pregnant again to maintain the best health for her body and her children. The 18-month rest period is called “birth spacing.” When the time between pregnancies is less than 18 months, her body may not be ready to have a healthy baby. Why is BIRTH SPACING When a woman does not wait at least 18 months important? between pregnancies, there is an increased risk of having a poor birth outcome (such as a premature birth or a low birth weight baby). These conditions can threaten the health of the child and the mother. These conditions are associated with infant mortality and other short-term and long-term health complications. How can healthy BIRTH There are a number of methods women and men may SPACING be accomplished? choose to avoid an unplanned pregnancy during healthy birth spacing. They may choose to avoid having sex during the fertile days of a woman’s cycle (such as a Calendar or Rhythm Method). They may choose a barrier method of birth control to keep the male’s sperm from the woman’s egg (such as a male condom, female condom, diaphragm or shield). A woman may choose a medication or hormonal method (such as the pill, injectables, patch, implants or ring). Each method varies in degree of effectiveness. All of these methods are reversible and allow the woman to resume trying to get pregnant after the healthy 18- month birth spacing period. How are contraceptive methods Medical professionals are trained to assist women chosen for BIRTH SPACING? and men in assessing which contraceptive methods may be medically advisable. A woman’s health status (including high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, anemia, or other conditions), body mass index, habits (such as smoking), and other considerations are all important factors in choosing a contraceptive method. These same factors are also important to address when choosing to get pregnant. For more information: For more information, contact the Family Planning Program at (302) 744-4552. Family Planning Program Number: 1-302-744-4552 Revised: 01/2011 Page 1 of 1 .

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Sex-Selective Abortions, Fertility, and Birth Spacing*
Sex-Selective Abortions, Fertility, and Birth Spacing* Claus C Portner¨ Department of Economics Albers School of Business and Economics Seattle University, P.O. Box 222000 Seattle, WA 98122 [email protected] www.clausportner.com & Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology University of Washington November 2016 *I am grateful to Andrew Foster and Darryl Holman for discussions about the method. I owe thanks to Shelly Lundberg, Daniel Rees, David Ribar, Hendrik Wolff, seminar participants at University of Copenhagen, University of Michigan, University of Washington, University of Arhus,˚ the Fourth Annual Conference on Population, Repro- ductive Health, and Economic Development, and the Economic Demography Workshop for helpful suggestions and comments. I would also like to thank Nalina Varanasi for research assistance. Support from the University of Wash- ington Royalty Research Fund and the Development Research Group of the World Bank is gratefully acknowledged. The views and ﬁndings expressed here are those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank or any of its member countries. Partial support for this research came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant, 5R24HD042828, to the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. Prior versions of this paper were presented under the title “The Determinants of sex-selective Abortions.” Abstract This paper addresses two main questions: what is the relationship between fertility and sex se- lection and how does birth spacing interact with the use of sex-selective abortions? I introduce a statistical method that incorporates how sex-selective abortions affect both the likelihood of a son and spacing between births.
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