Suboptimal child spacing practice and its associated factors among women of child bearing age in Serbo town, JIMMA zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Table 2 Birth history, knowledge about birth spacing and breastfeeding practice among mothers of child bearing age in Serbo town Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia, 2017 (N = 314)

Variables	Category	Frequency	Percent
Heard about modern contraceptives during two consecutive births	Yes	286	91.1%
	No	28	8.9%
Optimal birth interval has health advantage for the mother and the child	Yes	265	84.4%
	No	39	12.4%
	don’t know	10	3.2%
Short birth interval has health disadvantages for the mother and the child	Yes	260	82.8%
	No	47	15.0%
	don’t know	7	2.2%
Number of children born alive	2	110	35.0%
	3–4	159	50.6%
	≥5	45	14.3%
Child died soon after birth	Yes	38	12.1%
Child died soon after birth	No	276	87.9%
Mother’s need to have more children after last pregnancy	Yes	191	60.8%
Mother’s need to have more children after last pregnancy	No	123	39.2%
Time to become pregnant after last child	Soon after	47	24.6%
Time to become pregnant after last child	Wait until later	144	75.4%
Mother’s preference of birth interval (BI) in years	< 36 months	113	36.0%
	36–60 months	163	51.9%
	≥60 months	25	8.0%
	I don’t know	13	4.1%
Sex of the last child	Male	110	35.0%
Sex of the last child	Female	204	65.0%
Breastfeed the last child	Yes	283	90.1%
Breastfeed the last child	never breastfeed	31	9.9%
Duration of breastfeeding	0–11 months	19	6.7%
	12–23 months	49	17.3%
	> = 24 months	217	76.0%
Reasons for never breastfed	new pregnancy	5	16.1%
	mother was sick	14	45.2%
	Other^a	12	38.7%
Mother’s agreement on when to stop breastfeeding	< 24 months	57	17.9%
Mother’s agreement on when to stop breastfeeding	≥24 months	257	82.1%

^aothers include, mothers don’t have breast milk b/c of unknown reason, the child refused to suck

ISSN: 2055-7426