Measurement of and Trends in Unintended Birth in Bangladesh, 1983-2000

Bangladesh has experienced a rapid decline in fertility in the past several decades, facilitated by proactive population policies, provision of contraceptives, and broader societal shifts, encouraging smaller families and use of contraceptive to achieve revised childbearing norms. This paper presents 18 years of data from the Sample Registration System, a demographic surveillance system operated by the Maternal and Child Health–Family Planning Extension Project in six study areas in Bangladesh. Prospective measurements of women's fertility preferences were used for classifying nearly 25,000 birth outcomes from 1983 to 2000 as intended, unintended, or ‘up to God/Allah’. Over the 18-year period, the level of unintended births varied from 22% to 38%, with the lowest levels in the mid-1990s. Fatalistic responses declined significantly from…