Profiles, Practices and Perceptions towards Gender Preferences among Pregnant Women of Ahmedabad City, Gujarat, India.

ABSTRACT

Sex selective practices are of serious concern to the rapidly changing societies. The view of the pregnant women residing in urban areas should be considered. The present cross sectional study aims to study the obstetrics profiles, practices and perceptions of suburban pregnant women of communities in the service areas of a medical college. Antenatal women of the community of Saijpur ward attending antenatal clinics of the area formed the study subjects . Two hundreed pregnant women was interviewed using pre-tested Performa taking their consent. Institutional ethical consent was obtained beforehand and the data were analyzed.It was seen that out of the total 200 respondents, most of them (n=184, 92%) were literate. Forty two (21%) already had two daughters at the time of interview. The study showed that 31.5% (n=63) showed preference for male child and only few (n=29, 14.5%) showed preference for a girl child.It was evident that literacy has positive impacts on obstetrics practices of the women. Son preference is also observed among urban subclasses.Pregnant women tend to prefer a male child by and large, especially if the previous child is a daughter. Their views for such choice should be incorporated to bring about desired social change against gender imbalance.