Fertility intentions and the way they change following birth- a prospective longitudinal study

Table 3 Associations between prenatal fertility intentions and women’s socio-demographic and obstetric background^†

	n	Number of children^¥		n	Interpregnancy interval
	n	M ± SD	t / F	n	M ± SD	t / F
Religiosity			423.38^***			4.07^**
Secular	585	2.95 ± 0.69		443	2.37 ± 0.87
Traditional	200	3.39 ± 0.73		162	2.20 ± 0.78
Religious	146	4.45 ± 0.72		128	2.23 ± 0.82
Very-religious	122	4.96 ± 0.24		68	2.04 ± 0.92
Education level			2.90^**			−2.14^*
No higher education	253	3.77 ± 1.10		171	2.16 ± 0.89
Higher education	796	3.38 ± 0.93		631	2.31 ± 0.84
Socioeconomic status			29.72^***			0.40
Below average	120	3.93 ± 1.07		96	2.17 ± 0.90
Average	516	3.54 ± 1.01		397	2.29 ± 0.90
Above average	396	3.22 ± 0.83		296	2.31 ± 0.78
Maternal age			6.14^***			4.56^***
Younger (< 35)	810	3.57 ± 0.99		663	2.33 ± 0.84
Older (≥35)	242	3.14 ± 0.94		142	2.02 ± 0.73
Parity			−6.66^***			−6.47^***
First birth	436	3.24 ± 0.96		404	2.09 ± 0.74
Previously given birth	576	3.64 ± 0.98		399	2.47 ± 0.92
Fertility treatments			4.36^***			3.77^***
Spontaneous conception	929	3.52 ± 0.98		700	2.32 ± 0.85
Had treatments	116	3.09 ± 0.99		95	1.97 ± 0.83

^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001
^† These analyses excluded women who were not very-religious and answered “do not know” regarding desired number of children and all women who answered “do not know” or “do not want additional children” regarding desired IPI
^¥Desired number of children were reported as 1–5 with 5 = five or more children

ISSN: 1471-2393