Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of women with infertility in two Nigerian communities with different systems of descent and historically different levels of infertility. First, we focus on the life experiences of individual women across the two communities and second, we compare these experiences to those of their fertile counterparts, in each community. In doing this, we distinguish between women who are childless and those with subfertility and compare them to high fertility women.

The research is based on interdisciplinary research conducted among the Ijo and Yakurr people of southern Nigeria that included a survey of approximately 100 childless and subfertile women and a matching sample of 100 fertile women as well as in-depth ethnographic interviews with childless and subfertile women in two communities: Amakiri in Delta State and Lopon in Cross River State. The findings indicate that while there are variations in the extent to which childlessness is considered to be problematic, the necessity for a woman to have a child remains basic in this region.