Population Council Research that makes a difference

FRONTIERS collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Office of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, and Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College to test interventions that encourage birth spacing through targeted messages on optimal birth-spacing intervals (OBSI). An interval of 3–5 years is considered an important means of improving maternal and child health. This study examined the cultural and social factors that encourage early first birth and short intervals between births, and will use the findings to develop messages that encourage OBSI among young couples.

The project tested and documented the impact of a comprehensive outreach model in which women, husbands, mothers-in-law, communities, and health providers received information about OBSI and worked with state governments to create conditions facilitating the broader scale-up of the model. Following the intervention, a significantly greater proportion of women in the experimental sites were given messages on postpartum family planning, spacing methods, and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Although much improvement is needed, women’s knowledge of spacing methods increased significantly in the experimental sites following the intervention, while remaining very low in the control sites.