PDF, 1536K - Measure DHS

7.4 FERTILITY PLANNING
The Ethiopia DHS provides an opportunity to estimate levels of unwanted fertility. Unwanted
fertility can be estimated in one of two ways. Women were asked a series of questions about each of their
children born in the five years preceding the survey, as well as any current pregnancy to determine
whether the pregnancy was wanted then (planned), wanted later (mistimed), or not wanted (unplanned)
at the time of conception. This information may in fact underestimate unplanned childbearing since
women may rationalize unplanned births and declare them as planned once they occur. Another way
of measuring unwanted fertility utilizes the data on ideal family size to calculate what the total fertility
rate would be if all unwanted births were avoided. This measure may also suffer from underestimation
to the extent that women are unwilling to report an ideal family size lower than their actual family size.
Table 7.8 shows that 17 percent of births were not wanted, while 20 percent of births were
mistimed (wanted later). In general, the proportion of unwanted births rises with birth order. The
percentage of unwanted births increases from 10 percent among first and second order births to
24 percent among fourth and higher order births. With the exception of births to very young mothers
(under age 20), the percentage of unwanted births rises with mother’s age.
Table 7.8 Fertility planning status
Percent distribution of births (including current pregnancy) in the five years preceding
the survey by fertility planning status, according to birth order and mother's age at birth,
Ethiopia 2000
_______________________________________________________________________
Planning status of birth
Birth order
_________________________
and mother's Wanted Wanted Not
age at birth then later wanted Missing Total Number
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Birth order
1
2
3
4+
Age at birth