Birth spacing and child survival.

This chartbook presents the most recent data on the strong relationship of birth spacing to infant and child survival in developing countries in straight-forward language and clear graphics. The data which are drawn from the World Fertility Survey show that short birth intervals (less than 2 years) endanger the lives of both the child born at the start of the interval and the child born at the end of the interval. The effect of short interval is greatest in infancy. Children born at the end of a short interval are about twice as likely to die in their 1st year as are other children. The effect of birth spacing lasts at least 5 years. Children born either at the start or at the end of a short interval are about 50% more likely than other children to die at ages 1-4. The data also show that the effect of birth spacing is not the result of such factors as maternal education age or parity urban or rural residence or survival of the previous sibling. Short birth intervals are quite common: In the 25 developing countries for which data are available about 1/3 of all children are born at the end of a short interval. If all birth intervals were at least 2 years long an estimated 1/5 of infant deaths would be averted.