Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

Table 5.4 also indicates that less than one-third of women in need of family planning servicesintend to use a method sometime in the future (23 percent out of 75 percent). A somewhat largerproportion of women who are in need because they want to postpone their next birth intend to use in thefuture (18 out of 54 percent) than of those in need because they want to stop childbearing altogether (5out of 21 percent).5.2 Ideal Number of ChildrenIn order to assess fertility preferences in Ondo State, all ODHS respondents were asked: "If youcould (go back to the time you did not have any children, and could) choose exactly the number ofchildren to have in your whole life, how many would that be?" Women with children were asked theentire question, while those with no children were asked the question excluding the phrase in parentheses.The question measures two things--first, among women who have just started childbearing, the data givean idea of the total number of children these women hope to have in the future; secondl, among olderwomen with more children, the data provide an idea of the level of unwanted fertility.It is important to note that some women have difficulty in answering such a hypotheticalquestion, presumably more so in cultures in which control over fertility is a new concept. The fact thattwo-fifths of women in Ondo State gave a non-numerical response ("As many as God gives me", "Don'tknow", etc.) is evidence of this difficulty. Also, it is usually assumed with this question that some womenreport their actual number of children as their ideal number, since they find it difficult to admit that theywould not want some of their children if they could choose again.Table 5.5 Percent Distribution of All Women by Ideal Number of Children and Mean IdealNumber of Children for All Women and Currently Married Women, According to NumberLiving Children, ODHS, 1986Number of Living Children *IdealNumber ofAllChildren 0 1 2 3 4 5 6+ Women0 0.0 0,0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0,0 0.01 0.0 0,0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.02 0.4 0,9 0.6 0.0 0.4 0,4 0.4 0.43 4.7 2.4 2.3 1.7 0.6 1 .2 0.9 2.44 22.2 17.3 11.2 9.7 7.9 3.6 4.8 12.85 22.2 19.7 20.6 15.2 ii.4 12.2 5.5 16.06+ 23.4 25.2 20.6 29.5 32.4 33.6 41.2 29.1Non-Numerlc Rsp. 27.2 34.6 44.7 43.9 47.2 49.0 47.3 39.2Total Percent i00.0 I00.0 I00.0 i00.0 I00.0 I00.0 100.0 i00.0No. of Women 1326 437 349 421 466 500 694 4213Mean Ideal No.,All Women 5.2 5.4 5.3 5.9 6.1 6.3 7.0 5.7Mean Ideal No.,Married Women 5.9 5.4 5.3 5.9 6.1 6.3 7.1 6.1* Includes current pregnancy50