Abstract
Background: Reluctance to have children is one of the major challenges facing the world and Iran.
Objectives: Due to the lack of sufficient information regarding the motivation and preferences of young couples regarding fertility, this study was conducted to determine the desire of women on the verge of marriage to have children.
Methods: 252 women on the eve of marriage in Khorramshahr, Abadan & Shadegan cities were selected by convenience sampling method. Information about the attitude toward childbearing was collected using the Attitude Towards Childbearing Questionnaire (AFCS).
Results: The women in the study were on average 25.75 ± 7.97 years old. Most of them lived in the city and half of them were housewives. The score of attitudes toward having children in women aged 40 years and above, women looking for work, and women with Persian and Arab ethnicities were higher than other groups (P < 0.001). Also, women who considered government support "very effective" had a higher
attitude score (P < 0.001). On the other hand, women with "no income" and women with "postgraduate and doctorate" education had a lower attitude score (P ³ 0.001).
Conclusion: The attitude towards childbearing is positive in most women, but the impact of various personal and social conditions of childbearing is worth considering and requires careful policy-making in this field. It is recommended to strengthen and change childbearing policies in the government according to the provincial conditions (geographical, political, cultural, economic, and welfare conditions).
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Copyright
© 2024, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.