Quest for Conception: A Source of Marital Conflict among Infertile Heterosexual Couples in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

Fertility and parenthood are highly value in traditional African society to the extent thatprocreation is customarily considered the quintessential motive for marriage. Most heterosexualcouples contract marriage with a lot of excitements and expectations. However, the inability toconceive exposes them to matrimonial conflicts such as emotional trauma and other relationalproblems. These challenges are mostly experienced by women who sometimes take more of theblames regardless of the sources/causes of infertility. The study was a cross-sectional survey.Both the quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection comprising the QuestionnaireSchedule and the Key Informant Interview (KII) guide were used. A sample size of 589 marriedcouples aged 18 years and above was selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. Thequantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic contentanalysis respectively. The findings show that extra marital affairs (91.2%}, constant squabbles(85.6%), isolation (80.1%), and domestic violence (47.7%) are some of the core manifestationsof matrimonial conflicts arising from infertility in Anambra state. Consequently, it wasrecommended among others that couples should he enlightened on the actual sources/causes ofinfertility as well as create awareness on the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies such asIn-vitro Fertilization' (IVF) to aid conception.