WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Hajir H. Al-Ridhwany*, Duraid Ibrahim Jirjees, Abdullah Rajab Mohammed Salih and Asma A. Aljawadi

ABSTRACT

Background: Fertility behaviour is a term describes human's attitude regarding age at marriage and parity. Many maternal deaths every year could be avoided in developing countries if women choose to have their children within the safest reproductive years. Aim: The current study is aiming for detecting trend of fertility behaviours, if present, over two generations of mothers in Mosul, at the north of Iraq. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Mosul based on health-institutions from the 1st of April 2011 to the end of January 2012. It followed a multi-stage stratified sampling technique. Inclusion criteria was "currently married mothers in child-bearing age who consulted one of the selected PHCCs accompanied with her mother or mother-in-law". Verbal consents were to be obtained from them. Results: The current study has interviewed 918 mothers of two generations. Almost two thirds of the twosomes (59. 0%) were urban and more than half belonged to 3rd social class. The mean maternal age at marriage has significantly raised from 16.7 years to 18 years (P=0.000). Moreover, the range has stepped forward. Proportion of child marriage has fallen from 30.7% to 18.5%. Parity has halved over the two consecutive generations of mothers (P=0.000). None of mothers of current generation was reported as grand-multipara. Conclusions: Fertility behaviour in Mosul has significantly improved over the past few years.