Factors associated with unmet fertility desire and perceptions of ideal family size among women in Bangladesh: Insights from a nationwide Demographic and Health Survey

Abstract

Introduction Along with the developing world, Bangladesh has made a tremendous improvement in declining total fertility rate, however, this declining trend is not uniform to all the socio-demographic stratum. Incongruities exist between the numbers of children that women bearing and what they actually desired which refers to unmet fertility desire. This study aims to elicit women's perception of ideal number of children and predictors of unmet fertility desire in Bangladesh. Method This study analyzed nationally representative cross-sectional Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014 data. A two-stage stratified random sampling technique was used while a total of 17,863 ever-married women were interviewed between June and November 2014. A total of 10,912 eligible women were included in the analysis. Poisson regression analysis and logistic regression models were used to measure women's perception of the ideal number of children and to determine the influencing factors of unmet fertility desires. Result The mean value of the perceived ideal number of children was 2.22 (SD ± 0.73) and the majority of women (71.2%) expect to have two children in their lifetime. Approximately 46% of mothers reported bearing more children than they desired. The perceived ideal number of children was significantly higher among women who were living in rural areas, from Sylhet division, Muslim, unemployed, and experienced child death and those who justified beating. Findings revealed that several factors such as place of residence, geographic location, religion, wealth index, maternal age and education, partners' education, experiencing child

Women’s empowerment and fertility decision-making in 53 low and middle resource countries: a pooled analysis of demographic and health surveys

“…11 26 Concerning the perceived ideal number of children, negative attitudes towards wife-beating and the right to refuse sex result in a smaller number of children in many African nations. 11 17 The same is reflected in the present study given that negetive attitude towards wife beating strengthen women's status in their families. The same outcome is likely for other developing countries in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“… 27 A study focusing on Bangladesh with similar empowerment measures found a significant association with unmet fertility desire. 17 These results demonstrated that women’s final voice in the daily household purchase has sufficient independent explanatory power to explain fertility preferences beyond traditional measures of women status, for example, education and employment status. Another empowerment measure, negative attitude towards wife-beating, was associated with a small ideal number of children in Guinea and Zambia; however, negative attitude towards refusal of sex was found to be associated with greater odds of having more children than desire in Namibia and Zambia and lower odds than desire in Mali.…”

“… 47 48 However, other studies have found no significant association between household decision-making and women’s perceived ideal number of children. 17 The possible reason for this contrast may be the selection of the current sample of women aged 35 years or above. Higher decision-making power with increased age may influence the women to make their own decisions of fertility choice, whereby newly married women usually perform household duties under the primary decision-maker of the family, such as the husband or, in several cases, the mother-in-law.…”

“…Given the DHS data's official launch, substantial research has been conducted involving women empowerment and various health-related outcomes. For instance, studies have demonstrated the association of women empowerment with reproductive health, including contraceptive use, 3 12 fertility [16][17][18] and birth intervals. 19 In addition, some other pieces of investigation have highlighted the relationships of women empowerment with maternal healthcare service, 20 antenatal care, 21 children anthropometric status, 22 23 infant mortality 24 and intimate partner violence.…”

Child Marriage and Adolescent Motherhood: A Nationwide Vulnerability for Women in Bangladesh

“…The child marriage rate in Bangladesh gradually declined from 66% in 2014 to 59% in 2017 [ 1 , 18 ]. However, the continued high prevalence of child marriage and adolescent motherhood rates could delay the possibility of achieving the SDGs on child and women’s health [ 7 , 19 , 20 ]. There is a pressing need to evaluate the existing policy for necessary adjustment and targeting intervention programs to keep Bangladesh on track to achieve pertinent SDGs by 2030 before it is too late.…”