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The two fertility stalls that occurred in Bangladesh emerged as substantial barriers in controlling its burgeoning vast population. The first stall occurred during 1996–2000 in the mid-transition of fertility, while the second stall occurred during the recent period 2011–2014 in the late transition of fertility. This article explores the role of proximate determinants in those stalls by using the data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys. Data have been analyzed using proximate determinants model and a descriptive analysis technique. Findings show that contraceptive use and induced abortion are the main drivers of fertility transition in Bangladesh. Both stalls in Bangladesh are found to be associated with a stall in induced abortion. In addition, declining postpartum infecundability plays a vital role in setting first stall. At the end of this stall, composition of contraceptive use is also found less efficient. While, declining fertility-inhibiting effect of marriage and a marginal increase in contraceptive use are the additional factors that play key roles in setting second stall. The mixture of contraceptive use shows a shift to a more efficient composition in the recent years. Change in the timing of birth does not show any consistent link with any of the fertility stalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brass's method for estimating child mortality is based on an ingeniously simplified model. However, it frequently leads to values of q(x) that are not consistent with each other. This is most obvious for estimates of q(1). This paper examines the extent to which such inconsistencies are caused by simplifications in the model. Three assumptions are relaxed by adjusting for differences in infant mortality by birth order, taking account of annual fluctuations in mortality, and using a different age pattern of fertility for each cohort. These adjustments are applied to data from the 1974 Bangladesh Retrospective Survey of Fertility and Mortality and the 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey in which additional data from the Cholera Research Laboratory are used. The resulting estimates are more consistent both internally and with estimates from other surveys and by other procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]