Productivity, family planning & reproductive health in Burkina Faso:
PopDev qualitative data – User Guide

Persistent Identifier

10.17037/DATA.19

Description

The PopDev study is a prospective cohort study of pregnant and/or postpartum women who were between seven months gestation and three months postpartum at recruitment and followed-up over an up to nine month period. The cohort is a population-representative sample of parturient women in the commune of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. The quantitative data is already available in the LSHTM Data Compass archive; this deposit presents the qualitative data (transcripts of 56 in-depth interviews and 3 focus group discussions) from a nested cohort of women recruited from within PopDev, and their husband/partners. Key themes discussed in these qualitative data are women’s work, use of family planning, and the factors that facilitated or were challenging during their return to work during the postpartum period.

Data collection methods

Participants were purposively selected from within the PopDev cohort in order to achieve a sample of women with a balance of those living in urban and rural area, and a range of socio-professional occupations. Both socio-demographic characteristics (age, marital and reproductive status, level of education) and socio-economic activities were taking into account. Women were generally between seven months gestation and three months postpartum at recruitment. Their husband or partner was also invited to participate in the qualitative study, however in most cases he declined so we have relatively few transcripts from the men.

Most women participated in two in-depth interviews, a baseline and a follow-up interview, typically with a gap of 2-3 months between dates. Interviews were unstructured and focused on the themes of the birth, women’s work, use of family planning, and her return to work in the postpartum period. Interviews were conducted in a local language of the woman’s choice (usually Dioula), recorded, and later transcribed and translated into French.

In total, 56 interviews took place (48 with women, 8 with their husband or partner). 2 women were interviewed once, 20 women were interviewed twice, and 2 women were interviewed three times.

Three focus group discussions took place to complement the in-depth interviews. Focus groups were stratified by male/female participants and urban/rural residence. The groups discussed women’s work-related activities, the respective tasks of men and women at home, and how men could be involved in pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Data analysis and preparation

Interviews and focus group discussions were recorded. In most cases the interviewer transcribed the interview, although in a few cases a different transcriber was used. The interviewer translated the interview into French for analysis.

Geographic regions

Burkina Faso

Key dates

Data collection was between February to July 2014.

Quality controls

Regular exchanges took place between the supervisor and interviewers throughout the duration of the data collection. A full transcript of interview data were created for each interview. Translation from Dioula (the main local language) into French was carried out by an experienced qualitative researcher to ensure proper consideration of local idioms and meaning. All transcribed interviews were first reviewed by the interviewers who checked the quality of each interview and made corrections as needed. Then transcripts were sent to the supervisor for checking. All the data has been reviewed by the supervisor.

Population

Parturient women in the commune of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

Privacy

Information that makes participants potentially identifiable (names, detailed locality information, place of birth etc.) will not be made available for data sharing. The dataset is anonymised; all participants are identified in the dataset by a numeric code that is not based on any potentially identifiable information (such as a social security code). Where both the woman and her husband were interviewed their relationship is indicated by the coding.

A copy of the information sheet and consent form used in the PopDev study is available.

Ethics

Ethical approval was granted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Observational Ethics Committee and the Institutional Ethical Review Committee of Centre Muraz.

Keywords

maternal health; reproductive health; family planning; productivity; women’s work; time use; birth preparedness; postpartum period; male involvement

Language of written material

French

Project Information

Creators

File Description