E. For women, aged 15 to 49 years
Ask woman that are present at enumeration
[Questions 18-20 were asked of present women age 15 to 49].
[In Question 18] If no (2) or (9): continue with next woman. If yes (1): How many children born alive to you...
Have died?
_Male
_Female
Section E: For women aged 15 - 49 years
The purpose of questions 18 -- 20 is to collect information for estimating fertility and infant and child mortality, preferably directly from the woman concerned.
Information on live births (fertility) should be obtained for all women aged 15 to 49 years. For all others, i.e. for women less than 15 years and those more than 49 years and all males, use the tick-box for alternative "9" in question 18, and leave the rest blank.
Information should be requested of all women 15-49 years, irrespective of their marital status or whether you think they have borne children or not. Efforts should be made to get responses from the women themselves and permission to do so should be obtained from the head of household. If the woman concerned is not present, someone else - preferably the head of household - should be used to answer the questions.
Definition of live birth: A child born alive is one who cries after being born. Thus, a live birth is a birth which results in a child that shows any sign of life irrespective of the time of period within which these signs are manifest.
Question 18: Children ever born
Identify all eligible women using the age of the woman. Check with question 2 for consistency; the number of children in question 2 must be equal or higher than the number in question 17 (the higher number in question 2 accepted because foster children also are eligible in that question).
There are four parts to this question and the order of asking them is as follows:
d. How many children born alive to you (or name) have died?
Make the appropriate entries under columns for males and females.
This information is extremely important and it is difficult to obtain accurate data, because some respondents may fail to mention children who died very young or a long time ago. Probe by asking "Any male or female child who was born alive but only survived a few days or hours?"
Many respondents will be reluctant to talk about child deaths and become sad or upset that you are asking such questions. Be very tactful in such situations. Explain that you know the subject is painful but that the information is very important for calculation of death rates (mortality).