Reproductive decision making: Asian women's ideas about family size, and the gender and spacing of children

Abstract

Abstract Women of Asian origins and descent constitute a large ethnic minority in the UK. However, although there is some evidence that Asian family size is larger than average for the UK, little is known about Asian women's attitudes to reproductive decisions. This paper reports some quantitative and qualitative data from a sample of Asian women living in East London. One hundred Asian women with at least one child were interviewed about a number of aspects of their reproductive decision making, including preferred family size, gender composition of families, use of contraception, and methods of contraception. Their replies were compared with a group of 46 non-Asian women living in the same area. Like their non-Asian counterparts, most Asian women wanted two or three children, with Muslim women wanting somewhat larger families than Hindu, Sikh or non-Asian women. All women wanted a mix of boys and girls, although Asian women had stronger preferences than non-Asian women for more boys than girls. A majori...