Questionnaire Text

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Women aged 10 years or older
[Questions P and Q were asked of women aged 10 years or more]


p. Total children ever born alive _ _

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Number of children ever born alive

74. You are required to collect information on the number of children ever born alive to women aged 10 years or more. A live born child may be defined as the one who, after separation from its mother, breathes, cries or shows any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles.

75. Do not use a question such as "Mwachembela kangati" which would generally induce a woman to tell you the number of times she had delivered. But you are required to find information on the number of children who were actually born and who at birth were alive. Even if a child died later, as long as it was live at birth, such a child must be counted. On the other hand, a child who was born dead should not be counted.

76. On the question of the number of children ever born alive to a woman, ensure that all the children a woman gave birth to are counted. You should not include those children who are staying with the woman but not borne by her, for example, a woman may have been married to three husbands and is now living with the third husband. She had one child with the first husband and this one child is currently living with his father; and had three children with the second husband and of these three children, only one is staying with her, and the other two are either with their father or grandparents; and there is the last born from the present husband plus two other children borne by

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the previous wives of the present husband. So this woman has only two of all her children staying with her and two from other wives of the present husband. The total number of children ever born alive to this woman should be recorded as 5, number of children ever born alive and living in this household should be recorded as 2, number of children ever born alive and living elsewhere should be recorded as 3, and number of children ever born alive but have since died should be recorded as zero.


Women aged 10 years or more
[Question (p) and (q) should only be asked to women age 10 years or older]


(p) Total children ever born alive: Ask each woman age 10 years or older for the total number of children she has ever borne alive and record the number in 2 digits in columns 42-43.


Number of children ever born alive:

(i) Living in this household: Ask each woman age 10 years or older the number of children ever born alive to her who are currently living in the same household. Record the number of male children and female children in columns 44-45 and columns 46-47, respectively.

(ii) Living elsewhere: Ask each woman age 10 years or older the number of children ever born alive to her who are living elsewhere that is away from the household the woman is living in. Record the number of male children in column 48 and female children in column 49, accordingly.

Remember that all children, young or grown up, who are living on their own or with relatives whether within or outside the same village or place but away from the household the woman is living in are to be recorded in this category. Emphasise to the woman that you want to know the number of all her children who were born alive irrespective of their ages and where they are living.

(iii) Have since died: Ask the woman the total number of children she has ever borne alive, but have since died. Record the number of male and female children who have died in column 50 and column 51, respectively.
While probing for this information make sure that the woman does not exclude any of her children who might have died shortly after birth as long as they were born alive.

[Rest of the paragraph is unclear in the original copy.]


Note: You should make sure that you do not leave any columns from 42 to 55 blank for any woman aged 10 years or more. For instance where a woman has reported to have no children ever born alive under any specific column in question (p) or no live births under any specific column in question (q), you should record zeroes) and not leave the columns blank.