Concerns about One’s Own Future or Securing Child’s Future: Paradox of Childbearing Decision Making

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Researchers' incomplete perception of the concerns about childbearing decision making process is revealed in discussions about policies and programs that are designed to influence fertility. Perceiving the concerns of women is essential to explain process of decision making for childbearing. This study aimed to understand women's main concerns about childbearing decision making. Methods: This qualitative study was performed by conventional content analysis approach. The participants included 22 married women in Tehran who were pregnant for the first time or were using contraceptive methods. Purposeful sampling began and continued up to data saturation. To collect data, the unstructured in-depth interviews were used. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis by Lundman and Graneheim method. Findings: Four categories were obtained from data including "fear", "uncertainty", "hope" and "financial security". The main category or theme was "concerns about one's own future or securing child's future" that was extracted as the main concern of women about childbearing decision making process. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that concerns about one's own future or securing child's future are the main concerns of women about childbearing decision making. Deep understanding of women's concerns about childbearing will help midwives and other service providers to provide services, strategies and more sensitive and appropriate interventions.

The evolved psychological mechanisms of fertility motivation: hunting for causation in a sea of correlation

“…Religious beliefs and rules about contraceptive use, abortions, gender roles and the importance of the family are associated with fertility rates [120,121]. Greater religiosity and religious activity are associated with higher fertility [122][123][124][125].…”

“…Attitudes toward reproduction in wealthy families became less favourable as parity increased, suggesting that the direct cost of children is a salient theme in fertility decision-making. Kariman et al [120] also found that, among Iranian women, financial security, and securing their own and their children's futures, were primary concerns of childbearing. In Portuguese men and women, economic concerns were also a salient issue [71].…”

A Path Analysis of Factors Influencing the First Childbearing Decision-Making in Women in Shahrood in 2014

“…Many studies have examined the changes in fertility rates and in the factors influencing fertility in Iran and other countries (Testa et al, 2012;Kohan et al, 2012). The results of these studies show the direct relationship of fertility with women's age (Kariman et al, 2014b;Daniluk & Koert, 2012;Brennan et al, 2011;Mills et al, 2011), marital age (Hosseinzadeh et al, 2010;Kariman et al, 2014b;Taghizadeh et al, 2015), sexual preferences (Akaberi et al, 2008;Mills et al, 2011;Bhat & Zavier, 2003;Adibi Sedeh et al, 2012), desired number of children (Kariman et al, 2014a;Akaberi et al, 2008;Testa et al, 2012;Kohan et al, 2012;Daniluk & Koert, 2012;Brennan et al, 2011;Mills et al, 2011;Bhat & Zavier, 2003;Sedeh et al, 2012;Tavares, 2010) and child mortality (Sadeghi et al, 2010) and its indirect relationship with marital age (Sedeh et al, 2012) and couples' level of education (Tavares, 2010;Sadeghi et al, 2010).…”

“…A long-term process of reflection and intellectual debate may therefore precede childbearing. Previous studies on fertility have failed to take into account the process of childbearing decision-making (Rijken & Knijn, 2009;Kariman et al, 2014a).…”

An Analysis on Views of Iranian Women about Incentive Policies on Childbearing Decision-making

“…Some factors such as proper higher education, availability of the proper health network system in remote areas, economic strength, staying in education longer, delaying marriage are likely to have an indirect effect on fertility rate declination. Today, the sociologists of Iran are getting more concerned about the future of the country's population (Kariman 2014). Keeping in mind about the reduced rate of population, in the year 2012, the government of Iran started an incentive policy as per which, Housekeeping has been considered as a career and in which provision of pension also allocated.…”