Attitude and Factors Affecting Intention of Childbearing in COVID 19 Pandemic in Married Women of Reproductive Age Referred to Comprehensive Health Centers in Yazd City in Year 2022

Abstract

Introduction: One of the serious challenges that societies all over the world are facing is the tendency of couples to have fewer children and to delay it. It is possible thatcovid-19 pandemic, in addition to the previous reasons, attitudes and factors affecting childbearing, may make couples physically and psychologically hesitant to accept the role of parents. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the attitude and intention to childbearing age during Covid-19 pandemic in married women of reproductive age in Yazd City in year 2022. Methods: This descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2022 to June 2022 on 225 married women aged 15-40 covered by comprehensive health centers in Yazd-Iran. The data were collected by completing the demographic information questionnaire, the Persian Version of Attitudes toward Fertility and Childbearing Scale that was approved in 2014 by Baezt et al.; obtaining a higher score indicated a more favorable attitude By answering to the open-ended questions, by self-reporting and electronically, the information related to the factors affecting the intention to have children was collected. The data were analyzed with SPSS16 software. Results: The results showed that the attitude towards having children in the research community was not favorable (66.96 ± 10.55). Economic problems (n=184, 81.1%), Covid 19 pandemic (n=129, 56.4%) and the importance to comfort and convenience of parents (n=70, 30.8%) was considered as one of the most important factors affecting couples intention to childbearing. Conclusion: Although the spread of communicable diseases and epidemics can affect the desire of couples to childbearing, but the economic problems and the economic consequences of the pandemic, had undeniable and greater effects on the desire of families childbearing.