Literal question
If you could go back to the time you did not have any children and could choose exactly the number of children to have in your whole life, how many would that be?
If you could choose exactly the number of children to have in your whole life, how many would that be?
Interviewer instructions
In this section, information is collected about the births that a woman has had during her life, her current pregnancy status, and her knowledge of the monthly menstrual cycle. This is a particularly important section, and you need to be especially careful to obtain all the required information.
Check Q. 303 to see whether the woman has any children who are alive. This question checks if the woman has no living children or if she has at least one living child. Select the appropriate response from the respondent.
If she already has living children, we ask her to imagine the time when she had no children and could choose exactly how many to have. We are not asking how many she would like to have by her current age (now), but rather, how many she would like over her entire life (including the future).
If she tells you a number, record the responses provided, then proceed with Q. 401. If she gives an answer that is not a number, for example, "It's up to God," probe for a numeric response. If after probing, the woman will not state a number, write down her exact words in the OTHER category, and skip to Q. 401.
If she has no living children, you ask if she were to have kids, we ask her to imagine the number of children she would want to have. If she tells you a number, record the responses provided, then proceed with Q. 401. If she gives an answer that is not a number, for example, "It's up to God," probe for a numeric response. If after probing, the woman will not state a number, write down her exact words in the OTHER category, and proceed to Q. 401
