PIP: 682 mostly rural, Spanish speaking women in the Province of Vallegrande, Bolivia, participated in a survey of infant feeding practices to determine the proportion of women still in amenorrhea at different stages of the postpartum period. Vallegrande Province has a maternal mortality rate of 480/100,000 live births and a rural infant mortality rate of 300/1000, among the highest in Latin America. The crude birth rate is 35/1000. The decline in living standards caused by Bolivia's economic crisis has particularly affected women and children. Many families expressed a desire to limit the size of their families and to terminate existing pregnancies. The 682 respondents had all given birth within the past 18 months. The data were analyzed using a World Health Organization program based on the life table method to calculate the duration of breast feeding and amenorrhea. At the time of the survey, 83% of the women breast fed totally or partially. 72% of primiparas and 88% of multiparas breast fed at least partially. 94% of the women had breast fed at some time. The average duration of breast feeding was 15 months. The average duration of amenorrhea in the province as a whole was 9 months. Among the women who had terminated breast feeding before the survey, 50% were menstruating by the 4th postpartum month. Prolonged lactation did not provide optimal spacing, since 44.5% of the women has an interval of less than 24 months between births. 15% of the women pregnant at the time of the survey had never resumed menstruation after the previous delivery. The survey indicated that supplementary feeding begins before the 4th month, rapidly reducing the number of nursings and hastening the return of ovulation. Very young women constitute a group at greater risk of short birth intervals because they terminate breast feeding very early. 2/3 of the women used no contraceptive method and the rest used less effective methods. The survey indicates that, despite a satisfactory overall rate and duration of breast feeding corresponding to traditional rural models, prolonged lactation is an unsatisfactory method of spacing, as demonstrated by the high proportion of closely spaced pregnancies. Educational programs should be undertaken to inform women and health care workers of the techniques and advantages of breast feeding as well as the availability of effective contraceptive methods to space births.^ieng