Differential Determinants of Birth Spacing Since Marriage to First Live Birth in Rural Bangladesh

This paper focuses on birth spacing, i.e. since marriage to first live birth in the rural areas ofBangladesh. The objective of this study was to examine the socio-economic factors which influencedthe birth spacing among women since their marriage to their first live birth. The analysis was basedon the primary data collected from women through a structured questionnaire. Different sociodemographic and economic factors which determined birth spacing had been identified in theanalysis. A multivariate quantitative analysis was applied for this study. The findings indicated thatboth the socio-demographic and economic factors played, to some extent, a significant and importantrole in determining the birth spacing since marriage to first live birth. In particular, the women’slevel of education played the most important role, and this was followed by the respondents’ ageat marriage, quality of care at the clinic, respondents’ present age, mass media exposure, age gapbetween spouses, respondents’ age at familiarity with contraceptives and family’s income. All thesefactors explained 13.5 percent of the variation in birth spacing since marriage to first live birth.