The Desire for last Birth among Ghanaian women: The Determinants

Abstract

This study examines the desire for last birth among Ghanaian women and the determining factors associated with such desire. The study used a data set based on a longitudinal study from the fourth round Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS). This was a national survey conducted by Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2011 to monitor progress of women and children. A sample of 10,963 women within the reproductive age (15 – 49) years across the country between 2009 and 2011 were selected for the survey.

In this study, a multiple logistic regression and bootstrap techniques were used to determine the relationship of maternal factors and desire for more children. The estimated women who expressed no desire for the last birth was about 33.7% out of the 2873 women who gave birth within the survey period. This means that more than 3 in 10 women get pregnant when they are not prepared. The factors observed to be highly significantly associated with desire for more children among Ghanaian women included marital status (p-value = 0.000), parity (p-value = 0.000), mothers’ age (p-value = 0.000) and region of residence (p-value = 0.000). The results show that childbearing among more advantaged women are better planned than less advantaged women. The findings further reveal that about 30.7% of married women have an unmet need for family planning (unmet need for family planning defined as the percentage of married women who want to space their next birth or stop childbearing entirely but are not using contraception).

Keywords: Desire for last birth, unmet need, maternal factors, determinants