Housing and couples’ attitude to child birth
Badejo turned on his side for the umpteenth time. He makes a conscious effort not to roll towards his wife who lies fast sleeping occupying one side of the 5.5 inches bed in their one bedroom apartment. The room is stuffy and hot. There has been power outage for two weeks. The dimly lit lantern illuminates the room as he raises his head to look at the children who are sleeping on their sweat-ridden bed. They seem comfortable sleeping on top of each other. His gaze moves from the children to his wife who is five months pregnant. “I promise this will be the last one,” he mutters to himself. “I won’t touch her again after this, I promise. The sixth child? It sounds unbelievable that we are expecting another child so soon.” It’s not the first time Badejo would promise himself not to move close to his wife but he finds out that at the end of the day’s work sex is the last resort to ease off the stress.
Housing is one of the three basic needs of mankind. After the provision of food, it is the most important factor for the physical survival of man. It has been shown that housing is one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of living and place in the society. However, it seems housing problems is now forcing couples to postpone having babies; it is affecting their attitude to child birth.
Adesoji David Jiboye, a lecturer at the department of Architecture, Faculty of Environmental Design and Management, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, observes that the availability of adequate housing, either in single or multiple units, is a significant component of the physical form and structure of a community. “The family contents of the house denote the level of living standards and the degree of prosperity in the society. Therefore, housing is not limited to serving as a shelter alone. It is a space within which generations of families express their lifestyle, and preserve their history and identities of lineage,” he explains.
According to him, there has been a general assumption that the physical and structural adequacy of a dwelling alone is a good measure of its suitability in providing satisfactory housing to its occupants. “This generalization,” he says, “is nevertheless not enough to explain what is considered as satisfactory or adequate housing. A dwelling that is adequate from the engineering or design point of view may not be adequate or satisfactory from the tenants’ point of view. Therefore, the concept of an ideal home takes into account not only the physical, architectural.”
Bolatito Oloruntoba, a counselor explains that couple’s attitude to child birth is changing because they do not have enough money with which to care for their children. “Couple who live in a face-me-I-face-you apartment will not want their children to live in cramp conditions. However, childbirth is on the increase in places like this because the husband has nobody to talk to except the wife at night. Hence the probability of having more children is high.”
Adesoji explains further that evaluating tenants’ satisfaction with public housing in the country and engineering components of the home but also the social, behavioral, cultural and personal characteristics of the inhabitants and the arrangements under which the dwelling is managed. “One of the tasks confronting policy-makers, planners, housing developers, and all those concerned with housing delivery is how to identify relevant factors or parameters which determine tenants’ satisfaction with their housing and how to use this information in housing planning and development,” he adds.
However, some people argue that couples are cutting down on the number of children they now have not just because of housing but the general economic situation in the country. “I guess that may be the case if you are talking about the literate population,” says Tola Adeojo, a married woman. “Naturally, they will consider such factors as personal income and space when planning the family size, but not illiterates. In fact, it would seem those who live in single-room apartments even breed a lot more than their counterparts who live in flats and other posh accommodations. But my general observation is that space determines family size nowadays.”
Jummy Babs is a business woman and she says, “ to my own knowledge I do not think housing problem is or should force couples to postpone childbirth” I think it is a personal thing and also it has to do with their finance.
Also I don’t think housing is affecting couples attitude towards childbearing I think what is mostly affecting couples pertaining childbearing is finances and inability to conceive.
I also believe that couples are cutting down on the number of children because of the economy.
Osas Ehi comments that, as far as am concerned; I do not think housing problem has anything to do with couples postponing having babies. Except the challenge of where the couples have been sent packing and there is no money to pay for two years rent.
Also, it can be related to newly wedded couple whereby the wife and husband are still looking for accommodation and they are staying apart, in that case it might be very difficult for the couple to have children.
Cutting down on the number of children sometimes is not as a result of housing problem, primarily not as a choice but the economy problem.
Most parents do not want their children to go through the same kind of hardship they went through so they make sure they have the number of kids they can take care of.
However, David Anyamagiobi, a father of two believes that the issue of housing in Lagos no doubt contributed to their delay in having children.
He is of the view that couples as a matter of fact need to plan for shelter owing to the fact that accommodation problem is such a hectic issue for a lot of people. According to him couples requires peace of mind before they can think of before making babies.
Anyamagiobi further disclosed that when the issue is about making babies, couples are expected to plan for such and in doing this, they must have been seen to have tackled the issue of housing, before deciding to add more children to the family.
For Iretiola Enahoro, a mother of one, who have been married for five years recalls that she and her husband had difficulties securing a new accommodation, which obviously affected their plans of immediately having children.
To her, this forced us to postpone the whole idea of making babies because there is no need producing babies in an environment that is not conducive.
Shelter which is one of the most important necessities man has over the years constituted a determining factor for making babies to both old and new couples in Nigeria in particular and the world in general.
While this issue lingers, reports reveals that housing is gradually playing a part in couple’s attitude to child birth. For some plans of early raising of family had to be put on hold pending when they secure a comfortable house to live in.
The problems associated with securing a decent accommodation in Lagos for instance is such that couples need to first have a roof over their heads before they can be comfortable to take on the added responsibility of child birth.
To an extent, couples living in Lagos have been known to refrain from making babies because their low income most time cannot accommodate child birth
Anthony Eboh, a banker revealed that he and his wife initially plan to have a large family of six, but was forced to withdraw such decision owing to the economic realities they face at the moment.
Sure, Adeola Lanre confirms, couples without gain saying the fact are compelled to reduce the number of children they intend to have, a situation report reveals is no doubt connected to the issue of housing and other financial commitment.
ANNE AGBAJE