Fertility intentions over time

Unwanted pregnancy is the outstanding and determining factor in a chain of events whose outcome is often abortion and frequently the illness and death of a pregnant woman. The broad objective of the paper is to study the determining factors and decomposition of change in rate, composition and interaction of unwanted pregnancies. For fulfilling the objectives, National Family Health Survey-1 (1992-1993), National Family Health Survey-2 (1998-1999) and National Family Health Survey-3 (2005-2006) databases have been used. Age and total children ever born are the most important determining factors that have positive relation with unwanted pregnancy. The decomposition of change in unwanted pregnancy has revealed that each variable have its contribution over the time period. Hence, unwanted pregnancy is a phenomenon which requires a thorough understanding and an active implementation of policies (to control unwanted pregnancy) through Reproductive and Child Health Programme.

When a pregnancy comes sooner than desired or comes at a time when the mother had wished for no more children, the complexities associated with birth of that child are more likely to be perceived as complications. National Family Health Survey data (2005-2006) has been used to study the extent of association between pregnancy intentions and duration of breastfeeding. Pregnancy intention has been classified as pregnancies that are intended and unintended (mistimed or unwanted). A considerable percent (22 percent) of pregnancies in India are unintended. Hence, it becomes important to examine the impact of unintendedness on breastfeeding practices. However, it has been seen from the analyses that children born out of unintended pregnancies are more likely to have prolonged breastfeeding duration as compared to children born out of intended pregnancies. The KM curves prove this fact. Hence, pregnancy intention is not an important factor determining duration of breastfeeding in India.

Researchers in India and elsewhere have also noted that fertility declines over the past decade or so have intensified pressure on women to act to achieve their desired family sex composition within the confines of a smaller family size. This study examines the hypothesis that families in Uttar Pradesh want more sons than families elsewhere, and also examines how the sex composition of women’s current parity influences both fertility desires and full range of reproductive actions women may take to realize them including temporary contraception and sterilization. The analysis is based on NFHS-III dataset using 1457 and 1794 currently married women for parity two and three respectively.
The result indicates son preference go beyond a singular preference for male children. Families may want one daughter, very few want more than that and most definitely want at least one or two sons. Women with this combination are 42% less likely to report having wanted another child relative to those with three girls. women with two or more boys and no girls or those with two girls and one boy are significantly and considerably less likely to want another child (64% and 84% less likely, respectively.

In the context of very low to extremely low fertility levels recorded in many developed countries during the past two decades, an ongoing debate about the causes of this trend has been conducted amongst scholars and policy makers. When analyzing the results of various studies of data at either the aggregate or individual level, one important issue is worth noticing: a large number of existing analyses on the reproductive process are based largely, if not entirely, on female fertility data, whilst men are more or less absent from data gathering and analysis.
The aim is to build on the survey's theoretical papers and present the first empirical results on male fertility in the Czech Republic. For this purpose, we focus on indicators of male fertility, the preferences regarding family size and the ideal number of children from the personal and general view point. All is done by comparing male and female responses. Based on the findings on female fertility we will answer to following questions: (1) What is the level of male fertility in the Czech Republic? (2) What are the age-specific fertility rates for Czech men? (3) What are the preferences of male population with regard to family size? (4) At what age do men enter parenthood? (5) What are the main factors influencing male fertility levels?

This study investigates the genetic component in age at first birth (AFB) for twins from United Kingdom. We decompose the observed variance in AFB into that caused by: genes, shared environment, and the unique environment of twins. We first fit continuous structural equation models followed by the innovation to estimate tobit survival models to include censored cases. Our data contain 2 274 monozygotic (42 %) and dizygotic (58 %) female twin pairs born 1919-1968. Results show that up to 40 % of the observed variance in AFB is due to additive genetic differences. In line with previous research, results underscore the relevance of genetic factors in determining fertility outcomes. A historical comparison of cohorts shows that the genetic component in AFB decreases in more recent cohorts. Results emphasize the relevance of environmental conditions for the expression of genetic predisposition (gene-environment interaction).

Despite a growing attention to the health care needs of peoples living with HIV/AIDS, little attention has been given to reproductive choice and the intentions of them. Moreover the desire of HIV infected people to have children has an important implication for prevention of vertical and heterosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS and the future service demands for children born from them.
The main objective of this study is to assess fertility intention and demand for family planning among peoples on active ART follow up in north Wollo, Ethiopia.
An institution based quantitative cross sectional study design supplemented with qualitative in depth interviews was conducted to assess the level of fertility intention and contraceptive preferences among ART clients in North Wollo, Ethiopia.
A large number of HIV positive women and men have a desire for children and their decision is affected by different factors such as age, marital status, sex, number of children having, and partner desire for fertility. Those not having children, married/with partner, whose partner desire fertility, females and young age group were more likely to desire children than the other group

In the analysis of parents’ roles during the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) our stance draws on the social norms’ approach. Data from a qualitative study (15 focus group discussions, 87 participants) shows that from a normative view there are two main domains of decision-making concerning reproduction: (1) delays to reproduction driven by new norms stressing that a family should only be established once a state of economic independence and self-actualisation has been reached, and (2) gender dynamics – a push-pull dilemma, in which women tend to pull men into the sphere that has traditionally been the domain of women, and simultaneously try to maintain their leading position in the household, thus reinforcing the norm of the irreplaceable mother. These findings are tested in the broader context of psycho-social variables in a quantitative survey (representative national sample, N=1400).

The aim of this paper is to identify effecting factors on the gap between actual and preferred fertility in different levels of fertility in Iran. This research is conducted by survey method. The statistical population covered ever-married women aged 35-45 belonging to one of the household’s resident in two provinces. The total sample size was 800 household. A combination of sampling techniques including multistage clustering and systematic random sampling were employed. According to this study in Semnan province with below replacement fertility, the actual number of children is lower than of ideal family size and also the intended number of children. In Hormozgan province with above replacement fertility, 40% of women report that their actual number is higher than preferred number. High overachieved preferred parity can be attributed to some of an “unmet need” for contraception. We argue that the reasons for the gap are both individual and familial. The finding study identifies that cost of having children, tendency of women for higher education, unequal role in family life affecting the gap between actual and preferred number of children.
Keywords: actual, intended and preferred fertility, unmet intentions, value of childbearing, Iran

This paper examines changes over time in the proportion of women's non-numeric responses to questions about desired family size. Such responses have often been interpreted through the lens of classical demographic transition theory, as an indication that reproduction has not yet entered into the "calculus of conscious choice" (Coale 1973:65). Yet non-numeric desired family size has rarely been investigated in a cross-national framework, and never across time. Thus we know little about the processes underlying changes in these responses. This study uses over 15 years of DHS data from 33 countries representing three world regions. Taking a multi-level modeling approach, we use country- and individual-level indicators to examine the factors associated with non-numeric IFS. We then examine how the relationship between non-numeric IFS and individual- and country-level predictors changes over time. Results suggest that education and knowledge of contraception have the most salient associations with non-numeric IFS; with both being negatively associated with this type of response. While the overall effect of education remains consistently strong over time, we find evidence to suggest the the association between non-numeric responses and knowledge of modern contraception decreases over time.