Determinants of variations in second and higher order birth intervals

The family building process is a sequential process, where to reach a couple's completed family size, the women move succcessively from marriage to first birth, first birth to second birth and so on. Analysis of birth intervals is essential to study this sequential process, because through this analysis, one can determine whether the fertility changes are due to changes in starting, spacing and/or stopping of child bearing (Moreno-Navano, 1987). This sequential process often emphasizes cumulative nature of life course events and future patterns and outcomes. In such cases, it seems more apparent to study the analysis of interlive birth intervals. Again, the different socio-economics factors affecting fertility, may affect differently at various stages of reproduction.

The understanding of the family building process needs to observe the pattern and propensity of childbearing. The present paper focuses on the exploration of the socio-economic factors influencing the transition from one birth to another birth. This paper also investigates whether there is any considetrable change in the findings in between seven years gap of time, using the survey data obtained from the second and third National Family Health Surveys (NFHS-3 and NFHS-2) for an Indian State namely Bihar.