The Effect of Women’s Status and Autonomy on Birth Intervals in Cebu, Philippines

Ushma D Upadhyay, Johns Hopkins University
Michelle Hindin, Johns Hopkins University

New evidence shows that birth intervals of 3 to 5 years are healthiest for mothers and their babies. We look at whether women's autonomy affects the length of birth intervals using data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey in the Philippines. Among the sample of 853 married, fecund women, between ages 26-40, who report not wanting another child, 35% had a conception between the 1994 and 1998 surveys. Using Cox models to assess time to next conception, we find that more autonomous women have longer intervals. Wives who decide alone whether to use contraception have a median time to next conception of 4.4 years while when husbands decide alone, the time to conception is 2.2 years. This difference remains significant after controlling for age, parity, wealth, and other factors. Supporting women's autonomy will compliment efforts to improve health outcomes through increasing birth intervals.