Number and timing failures among births in Indonesia.

The 1987 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey was used to find out if each birth a women had in the 5 years preceding the survey was wanted when she became pregnant wanted later or not wanted at all. Data collection took place from mid-September to the third week of December and it covered nearly 15000 households where 11884 ever married women ages 15-49 were interviewed. The wantedness of births was divided into: 1) wanted then 2) timing failure (wanted but at a later time) and 3) number failure (not wanted at all). Results showed that 72.2% of these births in the last 5 years were wanted then 21% were timing failures and 6.8% were number failures. Among current pregnancies 13.5% were not wanted compared to 8% among the last births. And also among current pregnancies 21.8% were timing failures compared to 23% of last births. Birth prevention behavior and contraceptive use were also examined. 4.2% were pregnant contraception users who got pregnant in spite of efforts to avoid pregnancy; 24.4% were interval users who used some kind of method during the interval preceding pregnancy; 23.6% were past users who used a method but not during the interval preceding the pregnancy occurrence; and 47.7% were never users of any contraceptive method. Among births classified as wanted later 17.6% were to pregnant users 22.3% to interval users and only 38.3% to never users. Altogether 43% of the births were preceded by the use of the pill; 18.1% by the use of IUD; and 15.6% by the use of injections. Logistic multiple regression analysis also showed that the urban residence as an indicator of exposure to modernism was positively related to number and timing failure. However maternal education and frequent radio listening were positively associated with timing failure but not with number failure. Controlling reproduction in a high fertility country like Indonesia may be focused on postponing births because this may be more socially acceptable than restricting it.