What are Ghanaian women doing about their fertility intentions?
Fiifi Amoako Johnson, University of Southampton The consistency or otherwise between fertility intentions and subsequent behaviours have been investigated by a number of studies. Most of the studies have aimed at identifying suitable methodologies and concepts for analysing fertility intentions and behaviour. Methods that have been used in studying fertility intentions have assessed the validity of forecasting fertility behaviour and measuring attitudes based on ‘ideal’, desired and expected family size. The shortcomings of these measures are their dependence on respondents’ perceptions which might not reflect the individual reproductive ideals but that of the social context and their inability to capture changes in conditions or state over time. These measures therefore may not predict accurately the outcome of one’s fertility intentions. The fulfilment of fertility intentions is tied to acting to avert the occurrence of unwanted/ mistimed pregnancies. Although contraceptive methods h
