How many live-born children has this woman borne? If none, enter "00".

5. Women age 12 years or older
Questions B20 to B30 should be asked only of women aged 12 years or more.

Children ever born alive:
a.) You are required to report information on the number of children ever born alive to women aged 12 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 involuntary muscles.
b.) Do not use questions such as "mwachembela kangati" which would generally induce the woman to tell you the number of times she had delivered, because 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 alive at birth, such a child must be counted. On the other hand, a child who was born dead should not be counted.
c.) On the question of 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 male child with the first husband and this child is living with his father. She had three male children with the second husband and of these three children only one is staying with her and the other two are either staying with their father or grandparents. She had the last born male child from the present husband plus two other female children born by the previous wife the present husband. This woman has only two of all her own children staying with her and two from the other wife from the present husband. The total number of male children ever born alive to this woman should be recorded as "05" and the other number of female children she has borne should be recorded as "00". Thus the total number of children born alive to the woman should be recorded as "05": that is, "05" male children plus "00" female children.

How many children has this woman borne alive?

B20. Total number of children born alive
Ask each woman age 12 years or older for the total number of children she has ever borne alive. Record the number in 2 digits in column B20.