Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

3.2.6 Birth IntervalsA birth interval is the length of time between two successive live births. Information on birthintervals provides insight into birth spacing patterns, which affect fertility as well as maternal, infant, andchild mortality. Studies have shown that short birth intervals are associated with an increased risk of deathfor mother and baby, particularly when the birth interval is less than 24 months.Table 3.6 shows the percent distribution of non-first births in the five years preceding the surveyby number of months since the preceding birth, according to background characteristics. The median birthinterval in Afghanistan is 27 months. The median number of months since a preceding birth increaseswith age, from a low of 23 months among mothers age 15-19 to a high of 31 months among mothers age40-49. There is no marked difference in the length of the median birth interval by birth order or sex of thepreceding birth.Studies have shown that the death of a preceding child leads to a shorter birth interval than whenthe preceding child survives. The median birth interval is three months shorter among births for which theprevious sibling is dead than among births for which the previous sibling is alive (24 months and 27months, respectively). This difference in the birth interval may be due to the desire of parents to replace adead child as well as the loss of the fertility-delaying effects of breastfeeding.There are no marked differences in the median birth intervals by residence, zones, wealthquintiles or remoteness quintile. However, the median birth interval increases with the level of educationfrom 27 months among uneducated mothers to 33 months among mothers with higher education.46 | Fertility, Marriage, and Family Planning