Advances in Nursing & Midwifery

Abstract

Abstract
Introduction: The decline in fertility and childbearing tendency in Iran is due to
various demographic, economic, social, and cultural variables. The present research was
conducted to review studies carried out on factors affecting the decline in childbearing.
Methods: This systematic review searched for articles published from 2011 to 2017
in all the available Iranian and foreign databases, including SID, Magiran, Irandoc,
Medlib, Pubmed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Proquest using the following
keywords, “childbearing”, “fertility”, “fertility decline” and “population decline”. The
search ultimately led to the inclusion of 53 studies.
Results: The main factors affecting the decline in childbearing discussed in the 53
reviewed articles were divided to three general categories: 1. Personal and family
factors, including aging, older age at marriage, current number of children, the
duration of marriage, the mean birth spacing, gender preferences, hopefulness, marital
satisfaction, and quality of life, 2. Socioeconomic factors, including social support,
education, occupation and social participation, especially of females, place of residence
and the effect of social networks, 3. Cultural factors, including modernity, urbanization
and industrialization, attitude change towards the value of children, changes in family
values and religion.
Conclusions: To intervene in the decline in childbearing and to increase the success
rate of the designed plans and strategies, policy-makers and planners should provide
strategies to deal with all the three noted groups of factors affecting childbearing.