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ESTIMATION OF BIRTHS AVERTED DUE TO BREAST-FEEDING AND INCREASES IN LEVELS OF CONTRACEPTION NEEDED TO SUBSTITUTE FOR BREAST-FEEDING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2003

STAN BECKER ,
SHEA RUTSTEIN  and
MIRIAM H. LABBOK
STAN BECKER
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
SHEA RUTSTEIN
Affiliation:
Macro International, Calverton, MD, USA
MIRIAM H. LABBOK
Affiliation:
UNICEF, New York, NY, USA
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Abstract

After contraceptive use, breast-feeding duration is the major determinant of the birth interval length. Three methods of estimating births averted by breast-feeding, and the increase in contraceptive use needed to substitute for breast-feeding, are presented. Method 1 simply utilizes Bongaarts’ Ci, and the other two are based on mean birth intervals with and without breast-feeding. Estimates for each method are derived for six countries with DHS surveys from the mid-1990s: Burkina Faso, Uganda, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru. The estimated percentage of additional births that would occur if there were no breast-feeding ranged from 1–4% in Brazil to about 50% in Burkina Faso and Uganda, reflecting very low breast-feeding in Brazil and very high levels in the sub-Saharan African nations. Strengths and limitations of the three methods are considered.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 559 - 574
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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