Women's fertility knowledge and their number of children ever born: A cross‐sectional study in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aims Remarkable changes in the demographic behaviors of Iranian women have led to declining fertility since the 1980s. Therefore, the study of fertility has become very important. Iranian policy makers are developing new population policies. Because fertility knowledge influences women's childbearing, the purpose of this study was to look into the relationship between women's fertility knowledge and the total number of children born. Methods A cross‐sectional design and a survey were used in this investigation. In 2022, 1065 married women of reproductive age in Shiraz were surveyed. The data was collected using a standard questionnaire and multistage clustering sampling. The interviewers were first given the necessary training. At the time of the survey, the interviewers first gave information about the research to the surveyed women to gain their trust. To analyze the data, the characteristics of women were described first, and then the relationships between the variables were examined using correlation tests. Results Increasing women's fertility knowledge reduced the number of children. Women's actual fertility had increased in tandem with their ideal fertility. The number of children increased as women's ages and the ages of their husbands grew older. Increased women's education resulted in a decrease in the number of children. Women with employed husbands had more children than their other counterparts. Women with middle class identity had lower fertility than women who belonged to the lower class. Conclusion In confirmation of the findings of previous studies, the low level of fertility knowledge, especially in the issue of factors affecting infertility, was the most important finding of this research. This study, in continuation of previous studies, showed the decreasing effect of fertility knowledge of the number of children. Regarding the low fertility knowledge of women, population and health policies should consider improving women's knowledge of fertility.

Development and psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire on the contributing factors of tendency towards voluntary single-childedness and childlessness: a mixed method study

“…Social factors affecting reproductive behaviors have been expressed in various studies such as: age, education, maternal employment, age of marriage, number of children, age of first pregnancy, access to contraceptives, living conditions, family income, type of acquaintance and traditional marriage, modernity, ethnicity, relationship with husband, female independence in the family, urban or rural, degree of industrialization, social development, ethnic and cultural beliefs and customs, and even society's view of the normal number of family members 5 , 6 , 40 – 43 . In fact, the process of fertility transition is considered in line with developments that have taken place in various economic, social and some traditional aspects of the family and changes in patterns related to marriage and finally, behavior, ideals and childbearing tendencies of people 44 .…”