Changes in timing of fertility--a Canadian experience.

This paper examines the patterns of timing of births of women using data from the Canadian Fertility Survey of 1984. Semi-Markovian schemes are applied to the maternity histories of the 5315 sample women in their reproductive ages in order to measure the intensity and timing of childbearing. Age-and-duration-specific transition probabilities are found to have substantially changed for the more recent birth cohorts compared to the older cohorts.