Census Analytical Report - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Analytical ReportTable 5.4: Percentage Distribution of Women by Number of Children Ever BornNumber of Children Ever BornAge Group None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+ MNCEB15-19 70.1 19.8 7.4 2.0 0.6 - - - - 0.4320-24 19.9 22.0 25.6 18.1 9.2 3.6 1.2 0.4 0.1 1.9325-29 7.5 8.5 14.1 18.7 20.6 15.0 8.5 4.0 3.3 3.5630-34 5.1 5.1 7.8 10.3 14.1 16.2 15.8 11.4 14.5 4.9235-39 4.3 3.9 5.2 6.9 9.0 11.0 13.1 13.5 33.2 6.1140-44 4.6 3.9 4.9 5.7 7.4 8.4 10.0 11.3 46.9 6.7745-49 4.6 3.9 4.5 5.3 6.6 7.2 8.5 9.6 49.8 7.21MNCEB: Mean number of children Ever Born5.4 High Risk BirthsHigh risk births are those births that are associated with the four “Too’s” namely “TooEarly”, “Too Close”, “Too Many” and “Too Late”. The births that are considered TooEarly are those born to women below the age of 20. Those that are “Too Close” arethe births that are less than two years from the previous birth. The “Too Many” arebirths born to women with four or more births, while the “Too Late” are births born towomen aged 35 years or more. These high risk births are highly correlated with highfertility populations. They are a point of concern because they play a big role ascauses of both infant as well as maternal morbidity and mortality. However, since thecensus did not ask for women’s birth histories, the dimension of ‘too close’ cannot beinvestigated.54 percent ofthe births inthe last 12months werehigh risk birthsTable 5.5 shows that out of the 1.1 million children born in the 12 months prior to the2002 Census, more than half (54 percent) were ‘high risk births. The UDHS 2000 –01, which used a birth history approach was able to capture the births that were “tooclose” and it gave a figure of 67 percent. Thus the low figure does not necessarilymean a decline in proportion of high-risk births but rather a difference in methodology.The biggest category is births to women with more than 4 births, which constitutedabout one third of all the births. High-risk births are more likely to be born to women inrural areas, those who have never married and those with lower levels of education.49