Sterilised women and their last-born children: A pilot investigation

Abstract

Sixteen multiparous women, sterilised postpartum, and 13 comparable women who had not been sterilised, were included in this study of attitudes towards the last-born child. The women were recruited about 42 months after a normal delivery. The small sample sizes were the product of selection procedures employed in the study. Each subject's verbal interactions with her last-born child during the administration of a vocabulary task were scored. An interviewer, who was blind to the subject's contraceptive status, then questioned the mother using a structured schedule which assessed reported attitudes and behaviour towards the last-born child. Sterilised women prompted their children more often than control subjects, but few other important differences were found.