Pregnancy termination intervals in a rural area of Bangladesh.

Pregnancy termination intervals, i.e., live birth to live birth (LB-LB), live birth to fetal loss (LB-FL), and fetal loss to live birth (FL-LB), are analyzed prospectively between 1966 and 1970 in a rural population (117,000) of Bangladesh. Results indicate that the mean LB-LB interval was almost 30 months, the LB-FL interval 27 months, and the FL-LB interval 18 months. In addition, postpartum amenorrhea was estimated to be about 13-14 months, and the time added by a fetal loss toa LB-LB interval about 15 months. No relationship was found between LB-LB intervals and the number of living or dead children.