Questionnaire Text

Questionnaire form view entire document:  text  image
Section 3: Details of persons in the household

[Questions 26-29 were asked of long form respondents 10+.]

26. Of the children you have borne, how many sons and daughters are now living with you?

Record "0" if none.
Record "0" for women who have no child at all.
_ _ Male
_ _ Female
Questionnaire instructions view entire document:  text  image
Question 26-29:- Are questions referring the fertility experience of women aged 10 years and over.

Question 26-28:- The number of children the respondent has ever born

This question is going to be asked for member of a given household who are females aged 10 years and above regarding the number of children they have ever born during life time (which includes children who are living with them, children who are dead and children who are living in other places). Nevertheless, Females whose age is less than ten years and members who are males of any age are excluded from being asked this question.

Before forwarding the question to the respondent, the enumerator should understand the concept of being "born alive". Being "born alive" means without considering the number of months the fetus stayed in its mother's womb, if the child breaths at the time of birth or if he/she shows life before or after the umbilical chord is cut; such as when the child experiences a heart beat, umbilical chord beat, crying, muscle movement etc..., it is only under this condition we come to say that the child is "born alive." What should be noted here is that if the child shows life even for a very little time and die soon no matter how long the pregnancy lasted, the child will be considered to be "born alive". However, in situation when the fetus dead in the womb and abortion cases are not taken in to an account.

Traditionally, some mothers consider their adopted children as their own biological children, so due attention must be taken while asking the question to the respondent. What is required to collect is the information regarding the number of children ever born by their biological parents. For this purpose three separate questions (questions regarding children who are living with their parents, who are not living with them and who are dead) are built to collect the required information on the number of children ever born by a given respondent. This method helps parents to remember their entire biological children; so we can get the exact information on the number of ever born children. But adopted children are not counted and therefore enumerators should take care while collecting the information.

Question 26:- How many children have you borne who are now living with you (Male, Female)?

For women age 10 years and above the question concerning the number of children they ever born and currently are living with them will be asked. The information (the number of ever born children who are living with their mothers) to be collected will be filled and marked separately by sex on the spaces provided. Under this question children who are included are:

- If the respondent is currently married, the children who are born from the current spouse and living with them now.
- If the respondent was married before current marriage, children who were born before current marriage and living with their mothers in the current household.
- In addition, children born out of marriage or born before their first marriage and are living with their mothers in the current household.

Nevertheless, children who are born from the husband and any other women or children who are not born from the respondent are not included. For females who are 10 years and over but don't have children with them or never born before code "0" will be filled and marked.