Definition
For children born in the three to five years before the survey, PPABMO (M8) indicates the duration, in months, of the mother's postpartum abstinence after the child was born. Children with mothers who were still abstaining at the time of interview were excluded from PPABMO, but they are included in the similar variable PPABMOC (M9).
According to the DHS Recode Manuals, the maximum period allowed during the data editing was the interval between the date of birth of the child and the date of conception of the following child (with date of birth minus nine months used for the date of conception) or until the date of interview if there was no following birth. Cases exceeding this duration were left with the original response, but are coded with one of the flag codes on PPABFLAG (M29) and are coded as "Inconsistent" on PPABMOC.