If you want women to be your units of analysis, then you work with the IR file and just the most recent birth, which has index _1. For example, m3a_1 tells you whether a doctor was in attendance at the birth of the most recent child. When women are the units, you have to pick one birth.

If you want children to be your units of analysis, then you use the KR file. For example, open a KR file and enter "tab bidx m3a". Here bidx is the order of the birth in the past five years (bidx is 1 for the youngest child) and m3a tells you whether a doctor is in attendance at the birth of that child. In both the IR and KR files, the wealth index (in quintiles) is v190.

For some surveys the information about the delivery is only given for the most recent birth in the past five years, not for all births in the past five years.

I can help you with Stata but not with SPSS or SAS.

Your outcome is in both the KR and BR files, but I recommend using the KR file, not the BR. Virtually all of the IR variables are included in the BR and KR files. You should not need to do any merges.

The results from Stata, SPSS, and SAS should agree when you are using the same procedure. Please inform me of any specific example where they do not agree.

The wealth index for the Pakistan 1990-91 survey is available in another file. The Stata version is PKWI21DT.ZIP. Please login to your account to download that file (or the SPSS: PKWI21SV.ZIP or SAS: PKWI21SD.ZIP). I can help with the merge commands in Stata, but not in SPSS or SAS, except to say that whhid in this file matches with hhid in the HR and PR files, wlthind5 is the usual hv270 or v190, and wlthindf is the usual hv271 or v191. hv270 and hv271 in the household file are the same as v190 and v191 in the IR/BR/KR files, and the same as mv190 and mv191 in the MR file.

Everyone in the same household has the same value of the wealth index. It's defined at the level of the household, using household assets. That is, it is determined by hhid or the combination of hv001 and hv002 in the household data or v001 and v002 for the woman. Beyond saying that, I don't know how to answer your question about knowing whether you have the right value of the wealth index.

The last birth is the one with bidx=1.

If you are trying to match with Stat Compiler, you must tell me exactly what number you are trying to match, and what you get instead. However, I can only help with Stata. If you are trying to match with SPSS or SAS, someone else will have to help.

The IR file has one record per woman. A variable such as v208 is defined for the woman, and this is the file you should use for that variable.

The BR file has one record per child, whether alive or in the household.

In the BR file, the data from the mother is attached to the child's record. That means the woman's data is repeated for as many children as she has had. Women who have had no children will be missing entirely. Therefore calculating the mean value of v208 in the BR or KR file is incorrect.