Pattern of fertility in Basrah-southern Iraq

Abstract EN

The results reported in this paper are part of a comprehensive cross-sectional study carried out in Basrah governorate-Southern Iraq to quantify specific aspects of fertility.

The study covered 2670 ever married women aged 15-60 years.

The studied women were interviewed regarding demographic characteristics and detailed history of their pregnancy experience.

The results showed that the crude birth rate was 36.4 per 1000 population, the general fertility rate was 139.3 per 1000 women, the average number of pregnancies per woman was 4.3 and the average number of live births was 3.4 per woman.

About 37.9% of women had at least one lost pregnancy (abortion or still birth) and pregnancy wastage accounted for 14.1% of all reported pregnancies.

The total fertility rate was 6.4 per woman and showed some degree of decline over the last two decades.

About 70% (R2 = 0.70)of fertility variation among women could be explained by variables related to envisaged ideal family size, duration of use of family planning methods, pregnancy wastage, number of women siblings, duration of couple separation, education of woman father, education of woman and education of husband.