KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF INFERTILE WOMEN TOWARDS CHILD ADOPTION AS INFERTILITY MANAGEMENT IN A GOVERNMENT OWNED TEACHING HOSPITAL, IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT Infertility is a major societal problem with public health importance in developing countries. Infertile couples have few treatment alternatives. Most of the time, the expense of this treatment is not affordable for the average person, and the success rates with these kinds of treatments are low. Child adoption provides an alternative for infertile women to have children. The study investigated the knowledge and attitudes of infertile women towards child adoption as infertility management at Adeoyo Hospital Ibadan.

The study was cross-sectional in design and hospital-based among twenty women attending gynaecology clinic at Adeoyo Hospital in Ibadan. Participants were selected by a purposive sampling technique. In-Depth Interview (IDI) was conducted with all the participants using pretested IDI guide. IDI guide included aspects that elicited information about socio-demographics and cover the area of focus of the research objectives including information on infertile women's knowledge of child adoption, attitude towards child adoption, and factors that influence their attitude towards child adoption. All in-depth interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Interview transcription generated 83 nodes, 16 sub-themes, and 5 key themes.

Participants’ age ranged from 38-42 years with a mean of 37.5±5.6 years. All the respondents were Yoruba; 85% had completed tertiary education, 65.0% were Christians, 30% were traders and all (100%) were receiving treatment for infertility at the time of the study. Majority of the participants could define child adoption properly with a good knowledge of the processes and requirements involved. Some expressed their willingness to adopt, while many were unwilling to adopt a child due to a lack of precedence, religious, and financial factors.  Factors that influenced attitude towards child adoption included psychological dissatisfaction, negative reaction of families, husband’s preference for biological child and discrimination against the adopted child. Participants were reportedly under more pressure to find a solution to infertility with husband considering marrying another wife to have a biological child. 

Participants understood what child adoption entails, even though they have not adopted a child. To improve attitude and acceptability there is the need for community-wide sensitization programme targeting dispelling of myths and misconceptions and highlighting the benefits of child adoption among key stakeholders.