Your children will either thank (or blame) you for more than their protruding teeth or skin colour. Psychologists pretty much agree that birth order or child-spacing has a huge influence on a child’s personality.
What’s the best number of years between siblings, especially in Nigeria? Your child birthing order or spacing can also influence various areas of your life, including your child’s health and success in life. Whether you’re planning on having 5, 4 or 3 kids, read on for the health implications of birth-spacing.
Infant mortality
Estimates from the World Fertility Survey data for all countries combined show that infant mortality is 60-70% higher for children born within 2 years or less of birth of an older sibling. Risk for the older child is 77% higher if a new baby is born within 1 year. Having kids too close together may increase risk of death, birth defects, and developmental issues. The detailed risk factors explaining these deaths include stopping breast feeding too soon, which increases likelihood of succumbing to diarrhea and respiratory infections.
Inferior genetic expressions
According to , if a mother’s diet is insufficient in any way (which is extremely common even in wealthy, modern countries), the placenta will demand resources from the mother’s body: calcium from her bones, essential fats from her brain – essentially scavenging her body and using mom as a backup store for any nutrients that are needed to make a healthy baby.
While this usually works out well for the first born, the pregnancy may leave the mother depleted – suffering from physical ailments, poor memory, anxiety, and postpartum depression as a result, second siblings tend to have inferior genetic expression that manifests in less attractive physical features, lower IQ, and a higher likelihood of chronic physical ailments.
The most simple and successful way out
The best way to practice family planning is not the birth control pill – which can create an imbalance of gut flora and deplete the body of essential nutrition. Instead, get to know your cycle, use condoms and/or abstain from sex when you are most fertile until your body’s ready to make another baby.
Wait at least two years after the birth of your first child to consider trying to conceive again, and before you do, make sure that your own health is in optimal condition.
