The impacts of birth spacing on the health of mother and child

Abstract

This research, regarding the effects of birth spacing on maternal and child health, was aimed to: 1) study the pattern of birth spacing and compare birth intervals in each birth order and 2) study the impacts of birth spacing on the health of mother and child in each birth order. The research instrument employed was the questionnaire and the data was analyzed by using the cross-tabulation and the Logistic Regression Analysis. The samples consisted of 1,098 married women aged 15-45 with at least 1 child, excluding those living in Bangkok. In the first birth interval, which refers to the duration after marriage to the first child birth, it was found that the women gave birth after marriage at an average interval of 21.99 months, half of them used a contraceptive method to postpone pregnancy after marriage, and the highest proportion of the respondents used an oral contraceptive method. In the second birth interval, which refers to the duration from the first child birth date to the second child birth date, it was found that the average interval was 57.08 months, the highest proportion of the respondents used the contraceptive method of female sterilization. This meant that, quite a number of women desired to have only 2 children. In the third birth, which refers to the duration from the second child birth date to the third child birth date, it was found that the average interval was 66.89 months. In respect to the actual versus preferred birth intervals, it was found for the first birth interval that the sample had an actual birth interval close to the preferred birth (21.99: 21.69 months). This finding should be due to the fact that the spouses had planned when to have their first child. In the second birth interval, the spouses had actual birth intervals much longer than the preferred one (57.08 : 34.53 month). This finding may be mostly due to the birth interval campaigns done by the public health officers, and most of the samples held the opinion that the interval of 3-5 years was appropriate. In regards to the impacts of birth spacing on the health of mother and child in each birth order, in the first birth, the factors that were found to be significant at 0.001 level, that affected maternal health in the postpartum period, were the complications and risks during pregnancy and the type of birth. But no statistic significant relationship was found as regards to the birth interval. In the second birth, the factors that were found to be significantly at 0.001 level, that affected maternal health in the postpartum period, were the complications and risks during pregnancy, the type of birth, and the birth interval. In the third birth, the factors that were found to be significantly at 0.05 and 0.01 level respectively, that affected maternal health in the postpartum period were the maternal age at pregnancy, the complications and risks during pregnancy, the type of birth, and the birth interval. In respect to the impact of birth spacing on the health of infant in each birth order, it was found that, in the first parity the factors that were found to be significantly at 0.001 level, that affected infant health in the postnatal period, were the maternal complications and risks during pregnancy, but no statistic significant relationship was found as related to the birth interval. In the second parity, the factors that were found to be significant at 0.001 level, that affected newborn health in the postnatal period, were the maternal complications and risks during pregnancy and the birth interval. In the third parity, the factors that were found significant at 0.01 and 0.001 respectively, that affected infant health in the postnatal period, were the maternal complications and risks during pregnancy and the birth. The suggestions from this research are that: motivate a married couple to look for the complications and risks that may be found during pregnancy; reward the mother for good practices at all stages of pregnancy; motivate a married couple to have a vaginal birth; motivate a married couple regarding the optimal birth interval and especially for the second and the third birth intervals, and clearly define the time from birth’s date to the next pregnancy or one child’s birth date to the next child’s birth date; and motivate and educate a married couple about family planning methods in order to have the optimal birth interval by adopting the effective contraceptive method with a low failure rate.