Bangladesh 1993-1994 Demographic and Health ... - Measure DHS

CHAPTER 6FERTILITY PREFERENCESSeveral questions were asked in the BDHS concerning women's fertility preferences. The aim of thispart of the interview was to determine how many children women would prefer and to establish the extentof unmet need for contraception and the number of unwanted or mistimed births. The BDHS questionnaireincluded questions on:1) whether the respondent wanted another child,2) if so, how long she would like to wait to have the next child, and3) how many children she would want in total if she could start afresh.The usefulness of data on fertility preferences has been controversial. Critics consider the datamisleading because of the fact that information gathered from women does not take into account the effectof social pressures or attitudes of other family members, particularly the husband, whose opinions onreproductive behavior may be very influential. Another objection expressed by critics is that thesepreferences are usually held with weak intensity and little conviction and, consequently, change with time.Others maintain that results obtained from these questions are important for assessing the extent to whichunwanted or mistimed pregnancies occur and the effect of prevention of such pregnancies.6.1 Desire for More ChildrenIn the BDHS, currently married women were asked "Would you like to have (a/another) child orwould you prefer not to have any (more) children?" Interviewers were instructed to use the words inparentheses depending on whether the respondent had children or not. If the woman was pregnant, she wasasked if she wanted another child after the one she was expecting. Women who said they did want to haveanother child were then asked how long they would like to wait before the birth of the next child.Table 6.1 shows the percent distribution of currentiy married women by desire for another child,according to the number of living children. Almost half (48 percent) of currenfly married women age 10-49in Bangladesh say they want no more children, and an additional 12 percent either have been sterilized or saythat they cannot have any more children (Table 6.1 and Figure 6.1). Thirty-seven percent of women wantto have a child at some time in the future; however, the vast majority of these women (22 percent of allmarried women) say they would like to wait two or more years before having their next birth. Only 14percent of women say they want to have a child soon and 2 percent are undecided about whether they wantanother. Thus, the vast majority of women want either to space their next birth or to limit childbearingaltogether. These women can be considered to be potentially in need of family planning services.Not surprisingly, the desire for additional children drops progressively as the number of livingchildren increases (Table 6.1 and Figure 6.2). Sixty-nine percent of married women with no children wantto have a child within two years, whereas less than one percent of women with six or more children wantstheir next child within two years. Conversely, the percentage of women who want no more children or whoare sterilized rises from 3 percent for women with no children to 85 percent for those with six or morechildren.81