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How Close Is Too Close?

The Pros and Cons
of Back-to-back Pregnancies

By Teri Brown

Never before in the history of mankind have women had so much control on the birth spacing of their children. Just 100 years ago women had very little say in when they got pregnant. Most babies were born fairly close together and families were large. In today's society, we have choices. We can space our pregnancies to suit our needs.

If the cost of daycare is prohibitive, you can wait until your first child is in kindergarten before having another. If you want to be diaper free before having another child, you can wait until the first one is potty trained. But there are also advantages to having your children close together. For instance, if your children are close in age – 17 months apart or less – you may be up to your ears in diapers for a while, but once you are done, you can toss the diaper bag. And clothes are easily handed down from one child to another.

Brittney Walker from Phoenix, Ariz., had two back-to-back difficult pregnancies. Her sons are 13 1/2 months apart, and while the second pregnancy was especially hard, she is now thankful that things worked out the way they did. "My boys are best friends now, and I think they'd be lost without each other," Walker says. "I plan on having the next two almost as close as these guys! I will just try to prepare myself better next time."

Walker feels the hardest part of having her children so close together is that she didn't have time to prepare herself physically for the challenge. "My body had not had time to re-develop the back and abdominal muscles that are necessary to carry a baby comfortably," she says. "I was very tired because my reserves were depleted, and I was always dehydrated between nursing and growing a new baby."

Mavis Schorn, a certified nurse-midwife at West End Women's Health Center and an assistant professor at Vanderbilt School of Nursing, says that generally, studies have shown 18 to 23 months apart is ideal spacing. "Spacing seems to adversely affect pregnancy more significantly if [it is] less than six months or greater than five years," says Schorn. "The very closely spaced pregnancy [less than one year] has an increased risk of low birth weight and/or preterm birth."

Schorn says there may also be increased stress on the family that includes the following:

Want to see more?

• Child Spacing: The Art and Science
• The Difference Between Having Your First, Second and Third Child
• Postpartum Depression: Helping Yourself Helps Your Family
• Check out our Article Library.
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