Investigating the Social Context of Fertility and Family Planning: A Qualitative Study in Peru

Focus-group sessions conducted in 1986 and 1987 with Peruvian women living in 2 cities far from the capital indicated that womens control of their fertility is undermined by their low status in society and their ignorance of reproductive physiology. Contributing factors are their lack of any concept of planning for the future and a weak family planning program. Although there has been some increase in the use of modern methods of contraception nearly 1/2 of all current users rely on traditional methods such as rhythm which is often used in reverse and is therefore ineffective. Previous studies had singled out fear of side effects as the main deterrent to the use of modern contraceptives. However the focus-group discussions revealed that women who were using modern methods were as fearful of harmful effects as women who were not using such methods. In fact the women who were using modern methods were doing so because their dread of further pregnancies was even stronger than their fear of illness or death. Although surveys had shown the preferred family size in Peru to be 3 the focus groups revealed conditions that encourage women to have more children than they believe is ideal. Child mortality is still at a high level. Couples rarely discuss family size early in their marriage if at all. Women would prefer to delay childbearing for 2-3 years after marriage but feel they must have children immediately to please their husbands. Wives also fear their husbands disapproval if they use explicit methods of contraception because family planning is associated with infidelity and having many children with faithfulness. In this context family planning is used primarily as a means of limiting rather than spacing births. (authors) (summaries in SPAFRE)