BACKGROUND Short and very long interbirth intervals are associated with worse perinatal, infant and immediate maternal outcomes. Accumulated physiological, mental, social and economic stresses arising from raising children close in age may also mean that interbirth intervals have longer term implications for the health of mothers and fathers, but few previous studies have investigated this. M...

Pairs of first and second births and pairs of second and third births to the same Norwegian mothers were studied to determine the association between interpregnancy interval and birth weight, stillbirth, and neonatal death. Use of the pair approach provides one birth which could possibly have been affected by the length of the interval and one birth which could not. The association of interval ...

BACKGROUND Optimal birth spacing has health advantages for both mother and child. In developing countries, shorter birth intervals are common and associated with social, cultural, and economic factors, as well as a lack of family planning. This study investigated the first birth interval after marriage and preceding interbirth interval in Nepal. METHODS A community-based prospective cohort st...

A demographic model is developed based on interbirth intervals and is applied to estimate the population growth rate of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Gulf of Maine. Fecundity rates in this model are based on the probabilities of giving birth at time t after a previous birth and on the probabilities of giving birth first at age x. Maximum likelihood methods are used to estimate...

Postpartum contraception is important to prevent unintended pregnancies. Assisting women in achieving recommended inter-pregnancy intervals is a significant maternal-child health concern. Short inter-pregnancy intervals are associated with negative perinatal, neonatal, infant, and maternal health outcomes. More than 30% of women experience inter-pregnancy intervals of less than 18 months in the...

Advanced maternal age at birth is considered a major risk factor for birth outcomes. It is unclear to what extent this association is confounded by maternal characteristics. To test whether advanced maternal age at birth independently increases the risk of low birth weight (<2,500 g) and preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation), we compared between-family models (children born to different mothers ...

OBJECTIVE We examined the relationship between extreme parity and risk for stillbirth in the United States. METHODS Singleton deliveries at 20 weeks of gestation or later in the United States from 1989 through 2000 were analyzed. Risk for stillbirth in women with 1-4 (moderate parity, category I), 5-9 (high parity, category II), 10-14 (very high parity, category III), and 15 or more (extremel...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate preterm birth (PTB) for Inuit and First Nations vs. non-Indigenous populations in the province of Québec, Canada. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. METHODS We evaluated singleton live births for Québec residents, 1981-2008 (n = 2,310,466). Municipality of residence (Inuit-inhabited, First Nations-inhabited, rest of Québec) and language (Inuit, First Nations, Fr...

Objective. To characterize trends in chorioamnionitis (CAM) by maternal race/ethnicity and gestational age. Study Design. We examined trends in CAM from 1995-2010 among singleton births in all Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospitals (n = 471,821). Data were extracted from Perinatal Service System and clinical utilization records. Gestational age- and race/ethnicity-specific biannual dia...