The role of breastfeeding vis-à-vis contraceptive use on birth spacing in India: A regional analysis

Abstract

Birth spacing is one of the important aspects of reproductive health. Therefore, it is felt by demographers that birth spacing needs to be studied from time to time in view of the epidemiological transition taking place worldwide. Using the third round of National Family Health Survey-3 data, the central hypothesis of this paper is to find out the relative advantages of breastfeeding over other methods of contraception among non-sterilized women by using simulative approach of the Cox regression analysis in India and its regions. The results show that if women were not having amenorrhea period and had a high level of breastfeeding, the chance of not having next live birth was only two percent lower than those women who were using spacing methods in India. This pattern was found to be almost similar in all the regions of India except central and southern regions. There is no significant gain in postponing the next live birth has been observed in using the contraceptives than breastfeeding. An effort has also been made to apprise the policymakers of the interrelation between breastfeeding, postpartum amenorrhea, contraceptive use and birth spacing. Nonetheless, policymakers should promote programs that encourage both breastfeeding and contraceptive use. Breastfeeding has direct benefits for infant health in addition to its role in lengthening birth intervals beyond postpartum amenorrhea.