The impact of child mortality on spacing by parity: a Cox-regression analysis

Child mortality may affect spacing through biological and behavioral channels. The death of a child may elicit a desire to have another one soon; further, it may interrupt breastfeeding and shorten the sterile period following childbirth. The hypothesis that the child mortality-spacing linkage varies across parities, being strongest in the middle parities, is examined using microdata from Malaysia and the Cox-regression technique. The empirical results lend support to the hypothesis.