Assessment of Childbearing Decisions of Women in Aniocha-North Local Government Area, Delta State, Nigeria

This study was designed to assess the childbearing decisions of women in Aniocha-North L. G. A of Delta State. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the pattern of childbearing among women, extent of womens participation in child-bearing decisions and factors that influence womens child-bearing decisions in Aniocha North Local Government Area, Delta State. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Using power analysis, sample size of 387 participants were enlisted in the study. Interviewer administered Questionnaire was the only tool used for data collection. The data were statistically analyzed based on the research questions with the aid of IBM/ SPSS version 20. Major findings revealed that A good number of the respondents had low literacy level in the communities hence about 137 (35.4 %) had no formal education while 98 (25.3 %) had secondary education with 236 (61 %) having farm work or petty trade as their major economic activities. The mean value on the number of living children is 4.68. Age at first birth showed that on the average the women make their sexual debut at 16 years old. The means values for these statements When to become pregnant, Number of children, when to have sexual intercourse and child spacing period were 2.93, 2.93, 2.93 and 2.96 respectively. The mean value of where to receive ANC and where to deliver were 3.15 and 3.14 respectively. Majority of the women were not involved in decision of when and how to use family planning hence the mean value was 1.84. Apart from the cultural factors that have great impact on the womens childbearing decisions, socio-economic, biological and religious factors have little or no influence on Aniocha-Norths womens childbearing decisions. Therefore there is need to health educate the women on the need for their involvement in decision making with regards to their fertility and also the need for family planning as an effective way to reduce their family size, unsafe abortion, maternal mortality and achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 $ 5 target.