Abstract
BackgroundInfertility is a major medical condition that affects many married couples in sub-Saharan African and as such associated with several social meanings. This study therefore explored community's perception of childbearing and childlessness in Northern Ghana using the Upper West Region as a case study.MethodsThe study was exploratory and qualitative using in-depth and key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Fifteen marriage unions with infertility (childless), forty-five couples with children, and eight key informants were purposively sampled and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guides. Three focus group discussions were also carried out, one for childless women, one for women with children and one with men with children. The data collected were transcribed, coded, arranged, and analyzed for categories and themes and finally triangulated.ResultsThe study revealed that infertility was caused by both social and biological factors. Socially couples could become infertile through supernatural causes such as bewitchment, and disobediences of social norms. Abortion, masturbation and use of contraceptives were also identified as causes of infertility. Most childless couples seek treatment from spiritualist, traditional healers and hospital. These sources of treatment are used simultaneously.ConclusionChildbearing is highly valued in the community and Childlessness is highly engendered, and stigmatised in this community with manifold social consequences. In such a community therefore, the concept of reproductive choice must encompass policies that make it possible for couples to aspire to have the number of children they wish.
Highlights
Infertility or childlessness is a global reproductive issue for both sexes yet often neglected and not discussed in public
Examples were given of great families whose lineage had wiped out because they were unable to give birth to more children and majority gave birth to female children who got married and named their children after their husbands
‘‘Children are supposed to maintain lineage and inherit your property...we are suffering on earth because of our children’’ – (A 66-year old man with children in Focus Group Discussions (FGD))
Summary
Infertility or childlessness is a global reproductive issue for both sexes yet often neglected and not discussed in public. The lack of consensus on the prevalence of infertility is a consequence of differing definitions of infertility, the varying periods of time over which it is studied, and a failure to differentiate analytically between voluntarily childless and involuntarily childless [7]. Because some couples, who are not infertile, may not be able to conceive within the first year of unprotected sex, the World Health Organisation recommends the epidemiological definition of infertility, which is the inability to conceive within two years of exposure to pregnancy [9]. The use of the ability of the female to conceive as a measure to differentiate between primary and secondary infertility is problematic as it places couple infertility on the doorsteps of the female partners. This study explored community’s perception of childbearing and childlessness in Northern Ghana using the Upper West Region as a case study
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