Birth Intervals among Multiparous Women in Indonesia

Maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate in Indonesia are currently high. One of factors causing the high risk of maternal and infant mortality is too short birth intervals. This study aimed to learn determinants of birth intervals among multiparous women in Indonesia. This study used data from the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey 2012 with 9,945 multiparous women. The data was analyzed using Mann Whitney, Kruskal Wallis and logistic regression tests. Median of birth intervals was 62 months and 22.8% women had birth interval less than three years. Results showed that determinants of birth intervals included maternal education, the last age of childbirth, ideal family size, the use of contraception, infant mortality records and survival of preceding child (p value < 0.05). The age of childbirth was a major risk factor of too short birth intervals. It needs the improvement of communication, information and education regarding maturation of age for marriage, ideal number of children as well as the increase of contraception use in order to increase optimum birth intervals.