Journal of Reproduction & Infertility

Journal of Reproduction & Infertility

Sociological Study on the Transformation of Fertility and Childbearing Concept in Iran

Authors
Zohreh Behjati-Ardakani 1
Mehrdad Navabakhsh 2
Seyed Hasan Hosseini 3
1 Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran; Avicenna Infertility Clinic, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
2 Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran; Department of Sociology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Fertility and childbearing, in addition to the biological aspects, has always been regarded as a social phenomenon and, therefore, to understand the incident, values and beliefs, norms, and in short, the culture of any society should be scrutinized. Since the concept, condition, and value of childbearing is associated with cultural, social, political and economic dimensions, it has undergone various transformations during passage of time from past to present. The sociological approach of the current study investigated the evolution of the concept and value of fertility and childbearing in light of historical, social, cultural and economic upheavals. This study shows that the methods of rationalizing and legitimizing decisions about fertility and childbearing are defined and specified in the context of society. The rational for selecting the decisions is intermingled with social, cultural, economic, and political evolutions of the society like modernization, urbanization and the level of development in human communities. Today, fertility, childbearing and the number of children are not only connected with the interpretations of the individuals about the conditions and micro and macro subjective and objective factors surrounding them, but they are also linked with factors such as family income, the amount of time parents allocate to their children, quality of child nurturing and other family variables.
Keywords
childbearing
Cultural change
Individualism
social change
Socio economic transformation
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Journal of Reproduction & Infertility
Volume 18, Issue 1
Winter 2017
Pages 153-161