The effect of maternal nutrition and reproductive morbidity on waiting time to next conception in rural Karnataka, India

This paper is an attempt to understand the role of maternal nutrition and reproductive morbidity on waiting time to next conception among rural women in northern Karnataka, India. The study is based on the births that occurred from July 2003 to June 2004 in 54 villages and a series of follow-up visits to the women who bore these births. The Abstracts education of the woman and husband, occupation of husband, religion/caste, age at effective marriage of woman, age of woman at child birth and order of birth, haemoglobin level, body mass index and waist-hip ratio and reported RTI/STI symptoms are all significantly related to waiting time to next conception. Based on the data there does not seem to be a relationship with nutritional status and reproductive morbidity on the incidence of spontaneous abortion (safe and unsafe) and still births. Overall, maternal nutrition and reproductive morbidity factors appear to only have a marginal effect on waiting time to next conception in the area of study.