Childbirth spacing in a rural community of Delhi : profile in various marriage cohorts by decades

From March 1982 to April 1983 researchers from the University College of Medical Sciences in Delhi India interviewed at least 843 women = or >15 years old and married between 1921-1980 from 2 villages near Delhi about their birth history and year of marriage. There were 3736 live births among the 843 women. 98.8% of the women married between 1921- 1970 had children. Only 182 of the 256 women married between 1971-1980 had already borne children. The spacing between consummation of marriage and the birth of the 1st child (1st birth order) decreased steadily over the 6 decades. For example the average spacing fell from 44.86 months (1921-1930) to 40.11 (1951-1960) to 28.82 (1971-1980). During this time frame the mean age at marriage rose gradually but the mean age for 1st birth did not change. For each decade except 1971- 1980 the spacing for the 1st birth order remained significantly more than most of the other birth orders in that decade. The mean birth interval for all the marriage cohorts stood at 30 months. The average spacing of all births for the 1971-1980 marriage cohort was significantly lower than those of the 5 previous decades (p<.05) however. This could be a result of the decline in breast feeding and sexual abstinence in urban areas of India. This trend appears to counteract the efforts of family planning programs. The results of this study indicate that the National Family Welfare Programme must more actively promote child spacing as a means to reduce family size.