The effect of women’s status on desired family size with implications for community based participatory action

Abstract

This study explored the effect of women’s status on desired family size with the implications for community based participatory action. The population included all married women at the reproductive age (15-49) years.A questionnaire titled “effect of women’s status on desired family size with the implications for community based participatory action” consisting of 40 items was validated and tested for reliability and administered to 250 respondents who were selected through a multistage sampling technique modified by simple random sampling method which was adopted. A multinomial regression analysis was applied. Data was analyzed by the Stata (version 12) software. The findings indicate that a greater intention to limit childbearing is associated with exposure to media promoting family planning, current use of contraceptives, as well as future use of contraceptives, household decision making. In conclusion, a moderate proportion of women desired to limit or reduce their desired family size but there was a low connection to women’s educational status, their age at marriage, as well as the level of occupation, thus improving access to family planning services to women who have achieved their fertility goals would be greatly important, as well as boosting the age at marriage, increasing awareness, and enhancing husband's occupation, would greatly make an impact. It is proposed that the community-based action consisting of community orientation and action could help in mitigating existing challenges.

Keywords: Desired family size, Family Planning, Women status, Childbearing, Community action