Reproductive risks and intentions in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

An analysis of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from six Sub-Saharan countries found that reproductive risk factors (age, parity and interval since last birth) were highly correlated with women's intentions to limit births. Women who had had four or more live births were as much as 79 percent more likely than lower parity women to express a desire to have no more children. Women who were educated, those who were 35 or older, those who had some awareness of family planning methods and those who had a living male child were also more likely to want to limit their births. In Zimbabwe and Botswana, a number of factors were also associated with the desire to delay the next birth. Women who had had a child within the two years preceding the survey wanted to delay their next birth 13 months longer than those who had not given birth recently, and women who had a living male child wanted to wait longer (by seven and nine months, respectively) than those without a living son. In Zimbabwe, women with at least some secondary education wanted to delay their birth nearly seven months longer than those with less education, and in Botswana, women with at least some primary education wanted to wait eight months longer than women with no education. Women who knew two or more family planning methods without prompting wanted to wait seven months (Zimbabwe) and 11 months (Botswana) longer than those who knew fewer than two.