Fertility pattern of Muslim Hausa women in northern Nigeria.

PIP: This paper reports the results of a fertility survey conducted in 1980 in Malumfashi town in northern Nigeria. The study covered 302 Hausa-speaking households in 2 wards. Of the 302 married males surveyed, 168 were monogamous, 92 had 2 wives, 30 had 3 wives, and 12 and 4 wives (the maximum allowable). All 168 monogramous marriages were not monogamous at the start. The average duration of present marriage among respondents was 14.1 years for monogamous unions and 11.0 years for polygymous unions. The average number of children ever born to women over 45 years of age was 6.3 (6.7 in monogamous unions and 6.0 in polygamous unions). The average family size for all marriages was 3.6, but this value was 4.6 in monogamous unions and 3.4 in polygamous unions (age standardized values were 4.5 and 3.4, respectively). There were 80 live births in the survey sample during the 12 months preceding the study, with a mean age at childbirth of 28.7 years. The crude birth rate for the surveyed population was 48.06/1000 (46/1000 for monogamous families and 43/1000 for polygamous families). The infant mortality rate was 137.5/1000 live births. About 11% of women in the sample were sterile. The fertility rate observed in this study is lower than that in Nigeria as a whole, perhaps because of the prevalence of polygamous unions in this region. These results support the observation that women in polygamous unions have lower fertility than those in monogamous unions.^ieng