A modification of a model for number of births and estimation of age specific fecundability and sterility.

Abstract

"This paper deals with derivation of models to describe the number of births to women during interval (O,T) of length T, when the start of the observation is marriage as well as when it is a distant point after marriage. These models are extensions of the models of Singh, et al., (1973) and of Sheps and Menken (1973) and can suitably be applied to data for short periods of observation as the parameters are assumed to be homogeneous in time. The methods to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters are outlined." The models are applied to data from a sample survey on rural development and population growth carried out by the Demographic Research Centre of Banaras Hindu University in 1978 in order to examine trends in fecundability and sterility by age of women.