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Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal

Nepali migration is longstanding, and increased from 2.3% of the total population in 2001 to 7.2% in 2011. The estimated 1.92 million migrants are predominantly men. Consequently, 32% of married women have husbands working abroad. Social structures are complicated as many married women live with the...

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Autores principales: Shattuck, Dominick, Wasti, Sharada P., Limbu, Naramaya, Chipanta, Nokafu Sandra, Riley, Christina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7887959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2019.1647398
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author Shattuck, Dominick
Wasti, Sharada P.
Limbu, Naramaya
Chipanta, Nokafu Sandra
Riley, Christina
author_facet Shattuck, Dominick
Wasti, Sharada P.
Limbu, Naramaya
Chipanta, Nokafu Sandra
Riley, Christina
author_sort Shattuck, Dominick
collection PubMed
description Nepali migration is longstanding, and increased from 2.3% of the total population in 2001 to 7.2% in 2011. The estimated 1.92 million migrants are predominantly men. Consequently, 32% of married women have husbands working abroad. Social structures are complicated as many married women live with their in-laws who typically assume decision-making power, including access to health services. This study compares access to reproductive health services, fertility awareness, and decision-making power among a sample of married women aged 15–24 years (n = 1123) with migrant husbands (n = 485), and with resident husbands (n = 638). Predictably, women with migrant husbands had significantly lower contraceptive use than other married women (9.3% vs 30.3%, respectively), and expressed a higher intention to become pregnant in the next year. Despite their intentions, women with migrant husbands scored lower on a fertility awareness index, were less likely to discuss pregnancy planning with their spouse, and less likely to describe their relationships positively. Decision-making for both groups of married women was dominated by both husbands and in-laws in different ways. Yet, across multiple normative scales, fewer women with migrant husbands felt pressure to conform to existing social norms. Married women with migrant husbands reflect a subset of women, with unique fertility issues and desires. Interventions that increase knowledge of fertility among this subset of women, promote healthy preconception behaviours. Linking women for counselling opportunities throughout the pre and postnatal periods may help improve health outcomes for mothers and children.
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spelling pubmed-78879592021-03-30 Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal Shattuck, Dominick Wasti, Sharada P. Limbu, Naramaya Chipanta, Nokafu Sandra Riley, Christina Sex Reprod Health Matters Research Articles Nepali migration is longstanding, and increased from 2.3% of the total population in 2001 to 7.2% in 2011. The estimated 1.92 million migrants are predominantly men. Consequently, 32% of married women have husbands working abroad. Social structures are complicated as many married women live with their in-laws who typically assume decision-making power, including access to health services. This study compares access to reproductive health services, fertility awareness, and decision-making power among a sample of married women aged 15–24 years (n = 1123) with migrant husbands (n = 485), and with resident husbands (n = 638). Predictably, women with migrant husbands had significantly lower contraceptive use than other married women (9.3% vs 30.3%, respectively), and expressed a higher intention to become pregnant in the next year. Despite their intentions, women with migrant husbands scored lower on a fertility awareness index, were less likely to discuss pregnancy planning with their spouse, and less likely to describe their relationships positively. Decision-making for both groups of married women was dominated by both husbands and in-laws in different ways. Yet, across multiple normative scales, fewer women with migrant husbands felt pressure to conform to existing social norms. Married women with migrant husbands reflect a subset of women, with unique fertility issues and desires. Interventions that increase knowledge of fertility among this subset of women, promote healthy preconception behaviours. Linking women for counselling opportunities throughout the pre and postnatal periods may help improve health outcomes for mothers and children. Taylor & Francis 2019-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7887959/ /pubmed/31533579 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2019.1647398 Text en © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Research Articles
Shattuck, Dominick
Wasti, Sharada P.
Limbu, Naramaya
Chipanta, Nokafu Sandra
Riley, Christina
Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title_full Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title_fullStr Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title_short Men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in Nepal
title_sort men on the move and the wives left behind: the impact of migration on family planning in nepal
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7887959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2019.1647398
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