Insufficient birth spacing in families

A survey of 6,000 women in India has shown infant mortality rates of approximately 80 per 1,000 where the interval between births was three to four years, rising to 200 per 1,000 when the interval between births was less than one year. A greater than 100% reduction in infant morality under age one is achieved in the following countries when births are spaced at least two years apart: Northeastern Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey. In the USA, it has been estimated that infant mortality rates could be reduced by almost a third if no woman were to have more than three well-spaced births.

1. Medical workers, when caring for a mother and her young child, have come to realize that delaying the next conception and extending the interval between births are quite as important a part of health care as seeing that the latest child is adequately immunized.

1. Inadequate family planning programmes

1. Maternal malnutrition
2. Infant mortality
3. Excessively large families

1. Inadequate family planning education
2. Forced motherhood

1. Treating maternal depletion syndrome
2. Reducing intervals between pregnancies
3. Reducing incidence of maternal depletion syndrome
4. Promoting women's public health issues
5. Increasing intervals between pregnancies
6. Fostering breastfeeding
7. Ensuring effective child spacing

1. Reduction
2. Overspacing
3. Insufficiency
4. Depletion
5. Syndrome