Perception of male gender preference among pregnant Igbo women

Abstract

Background:Male gender preference is a dominant feature of Igbo culture and could be the reason behind women seeking fetal gender at ultrasound.Aim:The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of prenatal ultrasound patients of male gender preference in a patriarchal and gender sensitive society.Subjects and Methods:The study was a cross-sectional survey, which targeted pregnant women who presented for prenatal ultrasound at four selected hospitals in Anambra State. A convenience sample size of 790 pregnant women constituted the respondents. The data collection instrument was a 13-item semi-structured self-completion questionnaire designed in line with the purpose of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out with statistical significance being considered at P < 0.05.Results:Most of the women (88.4%, 698/790) were aware that fetal gender can be determined during the prenatal ultrasound while just over half of them (61.0%, 482/790) wanted fetal gender disclosed to them during prenatal ultrasound. More than half (58.6%, 463/790) of the women desired to have male babies in their present pregnancies while 20.1% (159/790) desired female babies and 21.3% (168/790) did not care if the baby was male or female. Some of the women (22.2%, 175/790) wanted to have male babies in their present pregnancies for various reasons predominant of which was protecting their marriages and cementing their places in their husbands’ hearts. Male gender preference was strongly perceived. There was considerable anxiety associated with prenatal gender determination and moderate loss of interest in the pregnancy associated with disclosure of undesired fetal gender. Socio-demographic factors had significant influence on perception of male gender preference.Conclusion:Male gender preference is strongly perceived among Igbo women and its perception is significantly influenced by socio-demographic factors. Male gender preference may be responsible for Igbo women seeking fetal gender at ultrasound.

How Many More Missing Women? Excess Female Mortality and Prenatal Sex Selection, 1970–2050

“…Population estimates in Nigeria are based on the 2006 census, which showed a large excess of males among the population aged 5-14 years. 4 In addition, female mortality below 5 years is unexpectedly high in Nigeria according to DHS estimates, and recent studies have documented the presence of tangible son preference among mothers (Milazo 2014;Ohagwu et al 2014).…”

Gender Preference in Current Pregnancy among Primigravidae

“…16 But a much higher percentage of pregnant women from Africa desired to know the gender of their unborn babies. ninty four percent of women from Sokoto Nigeria 12 , 90% of primigravidae in Enugu Nigeria 13 and 61% pregnant Igbo women 14 wished to know the gender of their unborn fetuses in present pregnancy.…”

“…11 Most pregnant women wish to know the gender of their fetuses 12,13 , but awareness of the methods of determination of prenatal sex of the fetuses is also high in different communities. 5,14 This study was done to find out the gender preference of pregnant women for their first baby, the number of children they want to have, their knowledge of prenatal sex determination, wish to know the gender of the unborn fetus, and the impact of education levels of the women on both their preference of gender and desire to know the gender of unborn fetuses.…”

Comparative Analysis of Sex-Selection in Nigeria and India

“…Of 453 respondents, 294 (64.9%) mothers preferred to have male children in the study conducted in South-South by Inyang-Etoh and Ekanem (2016). Among the Igbo, male gender preference is a dominant culture and it is strongly perceived among the Igbo women, in a study conducted among 790 pregnant Igbo women 58.6%, (463/790) preferred male child birth; this may lead women to embrace sex selection technologies and sex-selective abortion, tilting in favor of males (Ohagwu et al, 2014). In similar study conducted by Okeke et al (2015) in Enugu State, 62% (155/250) of their respondents had preference for male children.…”

“…Meanwhile, it is the male child that is being preferred to the female child in several parts of the world, stretching from North-Africa to South-Asia (Sinha et al, 2004), particularly in India (Shashi, 2015). This pervasive preference for male child is due to numerous reasons such as; patriarchal cultural preferences (Ohagwu et al, 2014;Khatun and Islam, 2011), the power structure of the society, (because of manual labor and the opinion that women will get married and leave their father's house while the male child will continue the lineage and remain the heir of the house), and disparate gender access to economical position (due to socioeconomic status, people are of the notion that a male child can strife to access food, healthcare, and assume responsibility while a female It is important to note that both feticide and infanticide has led to high female infant mortality (Khuroo, 2016), and imbalance sex-ratio in the population of India till date; 945 females per 1,000 males (indiaonlinepages.com, 2017). Although, sex selection of male child has been prohibited by policies or laws of various countries and where it is not prohibited entirely, it is limited only to medical uses for situations in which an embryo or foetus might be affected by serious sex-linked diseases (Singh et al, 2017;Bumgarner, 2007).…”