Literal question
HAS LIVING CHILDREN: 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?
NO LIVING CHILDREN: If you could choose exactly the number of children to have in your whole life, how many would that be?
Question post text
PROBE FOR A NUMBERIC RESPONSE
Interviewer instructions
Check Q. 216 to see whether the woman has any children who are alive. Select NO LIVING CHILDREN if she has no living children, or select HAS LIVING CHILDREN if she has at least one living child. Ask the question under the selected option.
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 it in the boxes by NUMBER, then proceed with Q714. 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. 715.