Reproductive System & Sexual Disorders: Current Research
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-038X
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2161-038X
+44 1300 500008
Shama Razzaq, Saleem Jessani, Narjis Rizvi, Zahid Abbasi and Sarah Saleem
Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Reprod Syst Sex Disord
Objective: To determine fertility preferences and its associated factors among pregnant women in squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 10 urban squatter settlements of Karachi from Nov 2014 to Jan 2015 using multistage cluster sampling. A total of 5,140 married women in the reproductive age group of 15-49 years were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The fundamental themes included in the questionnaire were socio-demographic information, pregnancy history, knowledge, attitude and practices regarding family planning and reasons if not using any methods. The outcome of interest was pregnant women with a desire to have more children. In this, analysis was done on subsample comprising of total 612 pregnant women. Results: Out of total currently pregnant women, 64% of women desire for more children in future. Future desire of more children was more likely among women who never attended school (aOR: 1.34 95%CI: 1.1-1.9), never used any family planning method (aOR: 3.267 95%CI:2.286-4.671), people with increasing wealth quintiles (aOR: 2.098, 95%CI 1.233-3.571), decreasing with increasing number of male children (aOR: 0.294, 95%CI: 0.169-0.513). Conclusion: Further desire to have more children among pregnant women is associated with increasing wealth status, and among those who never attended school. With increasing number of sons, the desire is decreased. So there is need to design an effective intervention to change the behavior of women towards increasing family size.
Email: shama.razzaq@aku.edu