Relationships between pregnancy spacing, sex of infants, maternal age, and birth order, and neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in Bangladesh

Abstract

The relationships between length of the interpregnancy interval, outcome of the pregnancy preceding the interval, sex of theinfants, pregnancy order, maternal age, and maternal history of previous child deaths and neonatal and postnconatal mortality were explored in a rural Bangladeshi population using a multiple regression analysis. Specific interactions between the interpregnancy interval, outcome of the pregnancy preceding the interval, sex of (he infants, and history of previous child deaths were examined. An inverse relationship was observed between postneonatal mortality and the length of the interpregnancy interval when the pregnancy preceding the interval was a surviving infant. No such trend was observed for neonatal mortality. Post-neonatal mortality rates among children whose mothers had experienced two or more previous child deaths were essentially (he same as that for infants whose mothers had experienced 0-1 child deaths when the interpregnancy intervals were more than 24 months. Although female infants have a lower neonatal mortality than male infants, the neonatal mortality rate for female infants conceived less than twelve months following a male infantbirth was higher than for a male infant conceived 'ess than twelve months following another male infant birth. Post-neonatal mortality is consistently higher for female compared to male infants in all interval categories