Determination of the Most Important Factors Influencing the Fertility Patterns of Single Child and Without Child Families in Shahr-e-kord City in 2013

The rapid decline in fertility rate and disassembling in the balance of age pyramid can exert irreparable damages to the country's economic and social structu-res. In this study, effective factors which could affect the fertility patterns among families with one or without child were investigated. In this cross-sect-ional study, 180 married women were recr-uited from many health centers by random simple sampling. Inclusion criteria were married women who had married at least 2 years ago and with no child as well as the married women who had only a child over 4 years old. Data collection instrument was a valid and reliable researcher-designed questionnaire (α=0.73) used to determine demographic data and to measure maternal attitudes toward childbearing. The data was analyzed by the SPSS software, version 16.0. Mean of score for attitude tow-ard childbearing was 48.29±13.64 and there was a significant direct relationship betw-een the score of attitude and age, age at the time of marriage, duration of marriage and education. Causes of disinclined to child bearing were noted by the highest perce-ntage of participants(83.3%) as increase in costs and economic pressures and by the lowest percentage of participants(8.3%) as fear of recurrent miscarriage and stillbirth. Discussion & Three important factors, that is, high costs and economic pressure, lack of governmental support and facilities for childbearing and the wrong attitude that having more children is a sign of poor social culture, were among the ones that had affected childbearing. Hence it is recommended that the authorities consider the factors in population policy making.