A Closer Examination of the HIV/Fertility Linkage ... - Measure DHS

Finally, to understand whether women are initiating behaviors suggesting a “speedingup” of fertility, we examine birth spacing (Figure 8). For all parities shown, birth spacing isincreasing over time. This suggests the opposite of acceleration. With the trends in fertility andcontraceptive use, these trends in birth spacing suggest that contraception is being used to controlspacing.Figure 8: Trends in number of months between births, by parity, Zimbabwe 1988-2006Between 1st and 2nd1988/1989199419992005/2006Between 2nd and 3rd1988/1989199419992005/200633.034.937.933.235.838.341.042.0Between 3rd and 4th1988/1989199419992005/200633.935.639.443.3Between 4th and 5th1988/198933.5199435.919992005/200638.742.60 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50Average Number of Months4. Summary of ZimbabweWe have examined these measures in order to indicate fertility trends. Examination of the trendsin Zimbabwe provides mixed evidence as to the cause of the fertility decline stalling. On the onehand, there are many indicators that suggest that fertility should continue to decline. Sexualactivity has declined, and contraceptive use is up for most groups except for people age 15-1921