Fraught with Ambivalence: Reproductive Intentions and Contraceptive Choices in a Sub-Saharan Fertility Transition |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Victor?AgadjanianEmail author |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Sociology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4802, USA |
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Abstract: | Demographic studies that search for signs of fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa rarely examine the complex gamut of
individual aspirations and misgivings, hopes and frustrations, failures and triumphs that accompany the emerging declines
of fertility rates in the subcontinent. This study draws upon qualitative data collected in peri-urban areas of Maputo, Mozambique’s
capital and largest metropolis, to explore contradictory meanings and feelings surrounding changes in fertility intentions
and contraceptive choices. It argues that although changes in these two aspects of reproductive life are interrelated, they
are predicated on distinct types and configurations of external pressures and psychological apparatus, which is often manifested
as a puzzling disjunction between fertility preferences and contraceptive use. This disjunction can be further reinforced
by persistent gender divisions in reproductive views and strategies. Informal social interaction plays an important role in
building societal consensus over fertility matters, but because such interaction deals with reproductive intentions and contraceptive
use through largely different mechanisms, it may also help accentuate the intentions-contraception disjunction. This study’s
findings therefore call upon both researchers and policymakers to attend more closely to the multidimensionality of fertility
transitions in sub-Saharan societies and specifically to the complexities underlying such popular notions as “unmet need for
family planning,” “spacing” versus “limiting” births, or “spousal communication” on reproductive matters. |
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Keywords: | Contraception Fertility Mozambique Sub-Saharan Africa |
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