Table 4. Preferred minimum waiting time to next birth among follow-up respondents with unmet need, according to follow-up survey.
| Among 31 follow-up respondents with unmet need who want a/another child, response to the question in follow-up study "(After the birth of the child you are expecting now / How long would you like to wait from now) before the birth of (a/another) child?" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum wait time (grouped) | Fixed | Range1 | Total | Average strength of desire to delay that long2 | Would affect unmet need designation? |
| Soon, now | 3 | - | 3 | - | Yes |
| 1 to 11 months | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.3 | Yes, if fixed at <2 years |
| 12 to 23 months | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3.8 | Yes, if fixed at <2 years |
| 24 to 35 months | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3.2 | No |
| 36 to 47 months | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2.6 | No |
| 48 to 59 months | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5.0 | No |
| 60 to 71 months | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4.2 | No |
| 72 months and beyond | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4.5 | No |
| Don’t know | 1 | - | 1 | - | No |
| 20 | 11 | 31 | |||
1 Average width of range is 23 months.
2 Response to question "Now, please tell me how strongly you feel about waiting that long to get pregnant. Please give me a number between 0 and 5, where 0 means you do not mind becoming pregnant before the time you stated and 5 means you really want to avoid getting pregnant before that time." Response does not apply to women who wanted a birth without delay (soon or now). The average strength of "no more" (for 18 respondents not listed here) is 3.6.