| dc.description.abstract | The study attempts to identify some of the socio-economic and demographic factors
influencing unintended childbearing in Kenya The general objective of the study is to
estimate the magnitude of wrintended childbearing by selected background characteristics of the women and to determine those factors which have significant effects on unintended childbearing.The study used data drawn from the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.The study population consists of 2462 'women in the childbearing ages of 15-49 who had a birth during the three years preceding the survey.
The study used simple percentage to show the distribution of respondents by the
selected background variables and cross-tabulation to show the association between the dependent variable and the selected independent variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effects of the selected socio-economic and demographic variables on unintended childbearing.The overall level of unintended childbearing was found to be 48.3 percent, of which 37:2 percent was mistimed childbearing and 11.1 percent unwanted childbearing. The results of the cross-tabulation analysis showed that significant differentials in unintended childbearing among currently married women in Kenya exist. Unintended childbearing
varies according to the socio-economic and demographic background characteristics of the woman. The level of unintended childbearing is slightly higher in rural than urban areas. It was also found that unintended childbearing is highest among women of primary education while those with secondary education and above had the lowest. The level of unintended childbearing increased with the woman's parity.Logistic regression analysis shows that age, literacy, knowledge of menstrual cycle, husband's education, children ever born, region of residence and occupation are the factors
that influence unintended childbearingin Kenya.Factors that had significant influence on mistimed childbearing were literacy, knowledge of menstrual cycle, husband's education and region of residence. Unwanted childbearing was positively and significantly associated with literacy, occupation and children ever born. All provinces other than Central recorded higher levels of unwanted childbearing than Nairobi, the reference category. There was significance association between total unintended childbearing and each of the following: age, knowledge of ovulatory cycle, husband's education, children ever born and region of residence. While age and knowledge of menstrual cycle had a negative relationship with total unintended childbearing, husband's education, children ever born and region of residence showed a
positive association.The study recommends that efforts to eliminate unintended childbearing should give priority to women who have been identified to have a higher likelihood of experiencing unintended childbearing. For example, young women, illiterate women, high parity women, those with uneducated husbands, those without knowledge of menstrual cycle, those not in modem labour force and those residing in Coast, Western and Nyanza Provinces.This entails enhancing the programs that will enable women achieve their desired fertility. There is need therefore to increase health facilities providing family planning as well as qualified health personnel. Where facilities exist, there is a need to improve them for effective and convenient contraception. There is also need to provide adequate information, education and communication activities to support community based programs in educating individuals and couples about various family planning methods available for spacing and limiting. Availability and accessibility of contraceptive is especially imperative in the rural areas, where most of the women live. This study also recommends further research in order to improve the measurement of unintended childbearing with a view to remove some of the ambiguities prevailing currently. Unintended childbearing among single and formerly married women should also be studied.This study focused only on quantitative data and therefore I would recommend a qualitative study to explain why and how these variables influence unintended childbearing. Specifically, it would be useful to know why women in Coast, Western and Nyanza provinces have higher levels of unintended childbearing than the rest of the regions. Finally, family planning programs should be based on sound theoretical framework so as to be effective in eliminating the prevailing high level of unintended childbearing in Kenya. | en |
