Literal question
What was the date of your first birth?
I mean the very first time you gave birth, even if the child is no longer living, or whose father is not your current partner.
Interviewer instructions
You need to obtain the year of the woman's first birth, which means the very first time she gave birth, even if the child is no longer living, or is the child of a partner other than her current one. As with all questions about dates and ages, you may need to probe to obtain the best information.
Ask for the child's date of birth. If she knows the exact birth date, enter the day, month and year of birth on the lines provided and continue to CM3. You will have to convert the month to a number, as you have been instructed. If the month or day contains only one digit, use a zero to fill in the first space. For example, the month of March is coded as '03'.
If she does not know the exact birth date, ask her the day, month and year separately. Enter the information as provided. If she does not know the day, circle '98'.
If she can give the month of birth, convert it to a number and enter it on the line provided. If she cannot give the month, probe to try to estimate the month. If you cannot estimate the child's month of birth from this information, you may need to find out in which season he/she was born. If it is still not possible to estimate the child's month of birth, circle '98' in the space for month of birth.
If she can give a year of birth, write it in the space provided and go to CM4. If she cannot give the year of the birth, circle '9998' and continue with CM3.
Skip to CM4 only if year of first birth is given. Otherwise continue with CM3.
