Proper Gap Between Births may Down Stunting in India by Angela Mohan on February 22, 2021 at 10:05 AM Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. "Our research suggests that adequately spacing out births can significantly lower stunting and the myriad bad effects it causes," said researcher Sunaina Dhingra from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) in the US. "Policymakers should ensure that family planning programs emphasize the importance of allowing sufficient time between pregnancies, in addition to reducing the number of births and delaying first pregnancies," she added.