Conceptualizing Childbearing Ambivalence: A Social and Dynamic Perspective

Sennott, Christie; Yeatman, Sara

doi:10.1111/jomf.12489

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Compared with women, men were exposed to significantly more social pressure to have children (partners, in-laws, community), but despite lower desire for a child and less readiness to conceive (economic, personal and relational readiness), men were significantly more willing to comply with this social pressure. This message seems consistent with the view that men report more childbearing ambivalence than women ( Sennott and Yeatman, 2018 ), but inconsistent with the view that ‘…men could have year-long negotiations to resist their partner's desire to have a child…’ ( Jensen, 2016: 203 ) or women's perception that delayed parenthood is due to their partner's ambivalence ( Koert et al, 2018 ). The present study adds valuable male data to the existing international literature, but continuing efforts to involve men in childbearing research is imperative to better understand the nuances of fertility decision-making.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

What makes people ready to conceive? Findings from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study

Boivin

Buntin

Kalebic

et al. 2018

Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online

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This study investigated fertility decision-making in people currently trying to conceive, and examined whether factors that make people ready to conceive differ by gender and country. The study used data from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study, a cross-sectional study of 10,045 participants (1690 men and 8355 women) from 79 countries. Respondents were aged 18–50 years (mean 31.8 years), partnered and had been trying to conceive for > 6 months (mean 2.8 years). Respondents indicated their need for parenthood; their own/partner's desire for a child; and the influence of certain preconditions, motivational forces and subjective norms in relation to readiness to conceive. Factor analysis of preconditions and motivational forces revealed four decisional factors: social status of parents, economic preconditions, personal and relational readiness, and physical health and child costs. Significant gender differences were found for desire for a child, decisional factors and subjective norms. Compared with men, women had higher personal desire for a child, and rated economic and personal and relational readiness as more influential. Men were more likely to rate subjective norms and social status of parents as more influential. Country comparisons found significant differences in personal desire for a child, partner's desire for a child, need for parenthood, preconditions, motivational forces and subjective norms. The results demonstrate that some decisional factors have a universal association with starting families (e.g. desire for a child), whilst the influence of others (e.g. personal and relational readiness) is dependent on contextual factors. These findings support the need for contemporary, prospective and international research on reproductive decision-making, and emphasize the need for effective fertility policies to take contextual factors into account.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

What makes people ready to conceive? Findings from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study

Boivin

Buntin

Kalebic

et al. 2018

Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online

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“…Along with the other studies from Africa (Sennott and Yeatman, 2012;Sennott and Yeatman, 2018;Trinitapoli and Yeatman, 2018;Yeatman, Sennott and Culpepper, 2013), the results of this study suggest that, to better understand women's childbearing decisions and intentions in higherfertility contexts, it would be beneficial to take a less prescriptive perspective to the conceptual approach adopted. There are a multiplicity of factors which influence women's childbearing and it might be instructive to draw more deeply upon literature from lower-fertility settings which has succeeded in recognising this complexity (Bachrach and Morgan, 2013;Kuhnt and Trappe, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Planning a family in Nairobi’s informal settlements: results of a qualitative study

et al. 2019

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Childbearing intentions among women in high-fertility contexts are usually classified into those wanting to have a baby, those wanting to ‘space’ a birth and those wanting to ‘limit’ their family size. However, evidence from Africa increasingly suggests that women’s intentions are more complex than this classification suggests, and that there is fluidity in these intentions. This research explores women’s accounts of their childbearing intentions and decisions in order to examine how this fluidity plays out in a low-fertility context in urban Africa. Six focus group discussions were conducted in April and May 2012 with women of reproductive age in Nairobi, Kenya. Participants were recruited using random and purposive sampling techniques. The focus group discussions had an average of seven participants each. Data were coded thematically and analysed using Nvivo software. The analysis explored the factors that women consider to be influential for childbearing and found that the health of the mother and child, costs of raising a child and relationships were commonly reported to be important. Evidence of intentions to space births and limit family size was found. However, the data also showed that there is fluidity in women’s family planning intentions, driven by changes in relationships or household finances, which often result in a desire to avoid pregnancy in the present moment. The fluidity observed in women’s childbearing intentions cannot be accounted for by the concepts of either ‘spacing’ or ‘limitation’ but is best explained by the concept of ‘postponement’. The research reveals the need for family planning clinics to provide a full method mix, as well as high-quality counselling, to enable women to choose a method that best suits their needs.

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“…And, in the generally matrilineal context that we study, these men may have more constraints on their ability to achieve their desired family arrangement given the shared cultural understanding that children belong to mothers and her lineage. Recent research from the same Malawian setting found that childbearing ambivalence was common among young men and patterned by life circumstances rather than the characteristics of individual men (Sennott and Yeatman )…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth Planning and Women's and Men's Health in Malawi

Yeatman¹,

Smith‐Greenaway²

2018

Studies in Family Planning

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Despite the frequency with which it occurs, we know little about unintended fertility in sub-Saharan Africa and even less about its implications for the health of the women and men who experience it. We use longitudinal data from southern Malawi to explore how young adults report on the planning of their births and to identify changes in their self-rated health and subjective well-being associated with having more- or less-planned births. Our data feature a comprehensive scale of pregnancy planning, the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP), that extends beyond the conventional focus on timing-based pregnancy intentions to incorporate information about contraception, desires, intentions, partner discussion, and preconception preparations. Women and men have similar bimodal distributions on the LMUP, with the majority of births clearly unplanned or planned but a sizeable minority that falls in the middle. Change score models demonstrate that, for women, an unplanned birth is associated with a decline in self-rated health. In contrast, men whose births were ambivalently-planned experience a decline in subjective well-being. Our findings highlight the value of considering the full spectrum of birth planning and demonstrate the health consequences of unplanned fertility for both women and men in this sub-Saharan context.

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Conceptualizing Childbearing Ambivalence: A Social and Dynamic Perspective

Cited by 24 publications

References 67 publications

What makes people ready to conceive? Findings from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study

What makes people ready to conceive? Findings from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study

Planning a family in Nairobi’s informal settlements: results of a qualitative study

Birth Planning and Women's and Men's Health in Malawi

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