In your experience, what would be your recommended # years in between child #1 & child #2? Pros and Cons. Thanks! :-)

Ideally, it should be 3 years for me. Mine are 5.10 yrs old and 2.5 yrs old. Pro's of Spacing out Pregnancies: .Birth spacing at this interval gives parents time to plan, especially with the finances. .Health-wise, this is good for mothers since they use up their nutrients during pregnancy and need to recuperate. It takes time to address nutritional depletion of mothers. They need to replace the nutrients they lost and need for themselves and for the next baby. .Parents get to focus on each child and attend to individual needs. Con's of Closely Spaced Pregnancies: .Mothers are not able to recover enough from the stress of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. .Financially, it's demanding. .Physically, it's challenging for both parents. MayoClinic asserts that there are risks associated with closely spaced births. But it is also risky to have too wide interval, 5 years and up. For more information, please click this link: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/family-planning/art-20044072 For me, future success depends on healthy birth spacing. Additional source: http://cchealth.org/birth-spacing/problems-cause.php

Per DOH's family planning program, birth spacing is ideally 3 years, considering a lot of factors such as maternal health, financial stability, etc. But in reality, the most ideal age gap for your children will completely depend on your preferences as a family. In my case, I got pregnant at age 21, and what I plan to do is have close-aged kids, max 2 yrs old, and never to have kids after 30 yrs old. Pros of my decision? We get to have my kids finish their school before I turn 50 so early retirement for us. It will not be an overwhelming process for us to raise the kids as some parents forget how they raised one if the age gap is too big. My kids can bond more, as they can do/like similar activities because their age is close. Cons? Taking care of two or more kids at a time can be tiring. We have to consider our financial sources. Hope this helps :)

This has always been a debatable topic. Here is a very good article that was published in one of the blogs that I follow. http://babyology.com.au/news/two-two-kids-close-together-dangerous-think.html At least you must have18 months of gap between pregnancies - that is, at least 27 months gap between child #1 & #2. Don't have too much gap either - remember that u have to furnish the responsibilities of ur kids while u are still in pink of health and still earning. Pros: Gives u time for planning ur financials. Take time to enjoy ur parenthood. Mummy will be rejuvenated. Last but not least, once u have child #2, u are more a referee than a parent - take some time to master parenting skills before #2 is welcomed. Cons: First 2 years of parenting is both physically and mentally demanding; you have to go through this rough period afresh.

I prefer 3-4 years age gap