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.
PIP:
A total of 552 women in 1983 have undergone laparoscopic sterilization under local anesthesia with sedation in the family planning clinic at Maternity Hospital and the Specialist Center at Batu Complex. A review was made to evaluate the risks, benefits, and safety of outpatient surgery in view of the shortage of anesthetic personnel, operating theaters and costs to patients if general anesthesia were to be used instead. Anesthetic complications (0.9%) were found to be of a very minor nature, not requiring hospitalization. Surgical complication was higher at 3.8%. There was a high rate (21%) of difficulties encountered at operation, 15% for medical officers and trainees but only 6% for specialists. In summary, a very low complication rate was encountered with local anesthetics. The use of local anesthesia with sedation is advocated. This cuts down on costs, hospitalization and recovey time and overcomes the perennial problem of shortage of anesthetic staff and operating theaters. The rate of the surgical complications was related to the surgeon's experience.
Study site: family planning clinic at Maternity Hospital and the Specialist Center at Batu Comple