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Birth Intervals, Survival and Growth in a Nigerian Village

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Pat Doyle ,
David Morley ,
Margaret Woodland  and
Jane Cole
Pat Doyle
Affiliation:
Centre for Overseas Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
David Morley
Affiliation:
Tropical Child Health Unit, Institute of Child Health
Margaret Woodland
Affiliation:
Tropical Child Health Unit, Institute of Child Health
Jane Cole
Affiliation:
IPPF, 18-20 Lower Regent Street, London
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Summary

Results are presented from an analysis of the intervals between births from Imesi, Western Nigeria. The mean interval following births of children who survived to 1 year was 35·03 months, but nearly half this value at 18·8 months following stillbirths or deaths under 1 year. Both these results confirm an early study done in the village (Martin, Morley & Woodland, 1964), and the role of post-partum sexual abstention as an explanation for these results is discussed. Attempts were made to look for effects of birth interval variation on the survival of the following child, but no strong trends emerged. Similarly, analyses of many growth variables by preceding and following birth intervals gave very little evidence of real effects. There were, however, hints of trends which were possibly caused by birth order biases; higher birth orders had been found to have correspondingly higher birth intervals. An intriguing result was that those children who had ever suffered from kwashiorkor showed a significantly higher preceding mean birth interval, and also a higher mean interval to the next birth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1978 , pp. 81 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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