E- For women age 15-49 years
[Question 23 to 27 were asked of women age 15 to 49 years]

24. How old was (the respondent) when she had her first live birth?

Section E: For Women Age 15-49 Years
Introduce this section by saying, "Now I would like to talk to you about all the live births you have, (if you are talking to the respondent) or (the respondent) has had (if respondent is a proxy). The live births I want information on are about children born alive who live with you, live elsewhere and those who have died".

Information on live births (fertility) should be obtained for all women age 15 to 49 years. Information should be requested of all of them irrespective of the marital status, whether or not they are visitors, at school, or you think they have never given birth to any children.

Effort should be made to get responses from the women themselves and permission to do this should be obtained from the head of household. Where the woman concerned is not present, a proxy should be used to answer the question.

[pg. 35]

Definition of Live Birth: a life birth is one which results in a child that shows any sign of life irrespective of the time or the period within which these signs are manifested, e.g. crying, movement of limbs.

Before proceeding with the actual interview, identify all eligible women using the age of the woman. Lumping ages should be discouraged as it can be shown on the pyramid that the age distribution has been improperly entered.

Q24 Age at first live birth
The question refers to the age of this mother at the time of delivering the first live birth (not first pregnancy), and to be recorded in completed years.

This should be consistent with the answers on Question 4. Probe as in Q4 to obtain the age.