Fertility: the dynamic of birth interval in Bangladesh

Abdul Hannan Shaikh

The study attempts to investigate birth interval patterns and its determinants in Bangladesh, using the data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health survey 1993-94. The finding shows that most of the women try to have their first child as soon as possible after their first marriage. The estimated median months and cumulative proportion at specified months by residence, education, and region were obtained by using life table methods. Hazard Model was used to estimate the effects of mothers` education, age at first marriage, urban-rural residence, sex of the previous sibling, and status of the previous child (whether the previous child died) on birth interval. The results of this study support that mothers` education, age at first marriage and urban-rural residence have significant effects on first birth interval. For second and third birth intervals mother’s education and status of previous child have highly significant effect.