PRE-MARRIAGE COUPLES` FERTILITY ATTITUDE FOLLOWING RECENT CHILDBEARING PERSUASIVE POLICIES IN IRAN

Following a phenomenal fertility decline during recent two decades in Iran, the
childbearing persuasive policy has been implemented. The goals of this study were to determine: the
pre-marriage couples` fertility attitude and demographic determinants of couples` fertility attitude.
Materials & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on 420 pre-marriage clients referred to Urmia
Pre-marriage counseling center in 2013. Data were gathered using a structured questionnaire.
Results: Both ideal and desired child number for most of the participants were lower than two, with no
difference between males and females (p > 0.05). For those males and females which sex of the child
were important, male preference was dominant (p= 0.00). Only 18.2% of males and 9.6% of females
were agreeing with the government in increasing childbearing. Having university graduation, being
student and living in small families leads to tendency to have female child (p< 0.05).
Conclusion: The findings confirmed the noticeable change in fertility practices of Iranian couples
which is largely dependent to change in their fertility preferences in child number and sex. It seems
that change in governmental population policy have no effect on couples` fertility attitudes.