ABSTRACT
Background: Despite tremendous economic progress made through liberalization and globalization, gender preference for children remains a major issue in any society throughout the globe. The aim of the study was to determine the gender preference for children and its impact on family among study population.Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out between October-2013 to December-2013 in the urban (Ratanpar) and rural (Khodu village) field practice area of C U Shah Medical College Surendranagar, Gujarat. Total 377 study participants were selected by using systematic random sampling. Data was collected using pre designed and pre tested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS.Results: Out of total study population, about 78.8% were completed their family and 21.2% had desire for child in near future. Those who had completed their family, nearly two third of them were blessed with both male and female child (62%). Among those who had desire for child (n=80), about two fifth (41.2%) wished to have male child. At parity one, 52% had desire for only male child as next child and also strong preference for male child was observed at parity two and above among those having only female children.Conclusions: Study revealed that most of the couples wish to have at least one son in the family hence perception of parents towards desired gender of child to be born must be gravitated in favor of daughters.
ABSTRACT
Background: Medical termination of pregnancy is defined as “willful termination of pregnancy before the age of viability of the foetus. The objective was to study the socio-demographic & obstetric profile and the reasons for procuring an abortion & choice of health care provider. Methods: A Cross-sectional study was done in urban slum in Jamnagar municipal corporation area by using 30 clusters sampling technique. Every women in the reproductive age group (15-49 years) was included in the study till the sample size of 15 was completed in each cluster and thus total 450 women were interviewed. 48 women out of the total of 450 ever married women in the reproductive age group who had ever undergone induced abortion were studied in detail Results: In the present study out of 450 eligible women, 48 (10.67%) had undergone an induced abortion and once only. 72.91% (35/48) of the women belonged to the age group 25-34 years and 89.59% (43/48) of the women were Hindus. Almost half of the total women (45.83%) had primary education, higher proportion of women were housewife 77.09% (37/48). According to Modified Prasad’s classification, 54.17 % of women belonged to lower social class (IV and V). One third (33.33%) of the women who underwent MTP had 1 living child. Majority 79.16% of the women preferred government hospital and in 45.83% cases both husband and wife acted as decision maker for MTP. Most common reason given for terminating the pregnancy was “birth spacing”. (52.09%) Other reasons given were, “family completed” (22.91%), “medical” (14.58%) & social (4.17%). Majority of the women (70.83%) accepted post abortion contraception. Conclusion: There is need to counsel women of reproductive age group that MTP is not a way to control unwanted birth and it is not free from risk. They should be motivated for various methods of contraception.