“The World is Unfair to Childless Women”: Experience of Infertility among Igbomina Women in Kwara South, Nigeria

Iwelumor, Oluwakemi Shade and Jamaludin, Shariffah Suraya Syed and Babatunde, Seun K. and OYEYIPO, EYITAYO J. and Oyekola, Isaac A. “The World is Unfair to Childless Women”: Experience of Infertility among Igbomina Women in Kwara South, Nigeria. Journal of Social Sciences and Public Policy, 15 (2). pp. 70-93. ISSN 2277 - 0038

Text “The World is Unfair to Childless Women” Experience of Infertility among Igbomina Women in Kwara South, Nigeria.pdf - Published Version Download (306kB)

Abstract

Infertility as an integral aspect of reproductive health has often been ignored in developing nations where it is mostly involuntary, constituting grave ills to infertile persons and their families. Virtually all attentions are geared towards addressing more supposedly salient reproductive health concerns and the worries of high population growth to the point that the ills of infertility are deemed insignificant. This study reveals the lived experience of infertility among childless Igbomina women in Kwara South, Nigeria using a social constructionist approach. Data set from in-depth interviews of thirteen childless women were used. The results were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis. ATLAS.ti 8 was used to organize data, identify the codes, and themes, and verify the analysis. The study showed that childless women experience infertility as a riddle, as sitting on a time bomb, as though the world is unfair to childless women, and as an existential crisis. This study supports the claims that the experience of infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa is somewhat founded on androcentric culture and religious sentiments. Nevertheless, it challenges studies that report that women are arbitrarily blamed for infertility. The findings show the need to renegotiate this sociocultural aspect of infertility and integrate them into designing culture-specific intervention programs on the management of infertility and other strategies aimed at improving reproductive healthcare in Nigeria.

Actions (login required)

View Item