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Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge

Demographic and Health Survey data from 18 countries were analyzed to better understand the characteristics of women wishing to limit childbearing. Demand for limiting (14% of all women) is less than that that for spacing (25%) but is still substantial. The mean “demand crossover age” (the average a...

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Autores principales: Van Lith, Lynn M, Yahner, Melanie, Bakamjian, Lynn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Global Health: Science and Practice 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25276520
http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-12-00036
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author Van Lith, Lynn M
Yahner, Melanie
Bakamjian, Lynn
author_facet Van Lith, Lynn M
Yahner, Melanie
Bakamjian, Lynn
author_sort Van Lith, Lynn M
collection PubMed
description Demographic and Health Survey data from 18 countries were analyzed to better understand the characteristics of women wishing to limit childbearing. Demand for limiting (14% of all women) is less than that that for spacing (25%) but is still substantial. The mean “demand crossover age” (the average age at which demand to limit births begins to exceed demand to space) is generally around age 33, but in some countries it is as low as 23 or 24. Young women often intend to limit their births, contrary to the assumption that only older women do. Large numbers of women have exceeded their desired fertility but do not use family planning, citing fear of side effects and health concerns as barriers. When analysis is restricted to married women, demand for limiting nearly equals that for spacing. Many women who want no more children and who use contraception, especially poor women and those with less education, use less effective temporary contraceptive methods. A sizable number of women in sub-Saharan Africa—nearly 8 million—have demand for limiting future births. Limiting births has a greater impact on fertility rates than spacing births and is a major factor driving the fertility transition. Family planning programs must prepare to meet this demand by addressing supply- and demand-side barriers to use. Meeting the growing needs of sub-Saharan African women who want to limit births is essential, as they are a unique audience that has long been overlooked and underserved.
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spelling pubmed-41685542014-09-30 Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge Van Lith, Lynn M Yahner, Melanie Bakamjian, Lynn Glob Health Sci Pract Original Articles Demographic and Health Survey data from 18 countries were analyzed to better understand the characteristics of women wishing to limit childbearing. Demand for limiting (14% of all women) is less than that that for spacing (25%) but is still substantial. The mean “demand crossover age” (the average age at which demand to limit births begins to exceed demand to space) is generally around age 33, but in some countries it is as low as 23 or 24. Young women often intend to limit their births, contrary to the assumption that only older women do. Large numbers of women have exceeded their desired fertility but do not use family planning, citing fear of side effects and health concerns as barriers. When analysis is restricted to married women, demand for limiting nearly equals that for spacing. Many women who want no more children and who use contraception, especially poor women and those with less education, use less effective temporary contraceptive methods. A sizable number of women in sub-Saharan Africa—nearly 8 million—have demand for limiting future births. Limiting births has a greater impact on fertility rates than spacing births and is a major factor driving the fertility transition. Family planning programs must prepare to meet this demand by addressing supply- and demand-side barriers to use. Meeting the growing needs of sub-Saharan African women who want to limit births is essential, as they are a unique audience that has long been overlooked and underserved. Global Health: Science and Practice 2013-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4168554/ /pubmed/25276520 http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-12-00036 Text en © Van Lith et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
spellingShingle Original Articles
Van Lith, Lynn M
Yahner, Melanie
Bakamjian, Lynn
Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title_full Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title_fullStr Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title_full_unstemmed Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title_short Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
title_sort women's growing desire to limit births in sub-saharan africa: meeting the challenge
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25276520
http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-12-00036
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