African Demography Working Paper Series
Title
Attitudes of women and men towards contraception in Bobo-Dioulasso
Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
June 1986
Abstract
The extent of knowledge and practice of contraception in African populations remains hard to evaluate and despite the great influx of data from the World Fertility Surveys, the impact of contraception on fertility levels is difficult to measure. The practice of abstinence for the purpose of spacing births is widespread in Africa. It was discussed in demographic terms already by Lorimer in 1954. More recently the Caldwells (1977, 1981), by carefully investigating the phenomenon among the Yoruba, contributed greatly to establish the place of sexual abstinence in the study of the determinants of African fertility. Lately, data from the World Fertility Survey have shown large variations in the length of post-partum abstinence between countries and among different ethnic groups. Anthropological research has thrown some light on the different functions attributed to post-partum sexual abstinence, and the different reasons for practicing it.
Keywords
Africa, fertility, contraception, breastfeeding, abstinence, birth spacing, World Fertility Survey, surveys, data, Yoruba, tradition, ethnic differences, premarital sex, lactation, pregnancy, contraceptive methods, Senegal, Ivory Coast, East Africa, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, Upper Volta, Ouagadougou, Abidjan, interviews, ethnographic methods, fieldwork, ethnic groups, contraceptive knowledge, women, men, husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, religion
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Date Posted: 27 November 2007
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
African Demography Working Papers Working Paper No.13 June 1986