““ “ “The World is Unfair to Childless Women The World is Unfair to Childless Women”: ”: ”: The World is Unfair to Childless Women among among Igbomina Igbomina Igbomina Women Women Women in in ”: Experience of Infertility Experience of Infertility in in Kwara South, Nigeria Kwara South, Nigeria

Iwelumor, Oluwakemi S.1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3 1,2,3 , ,, , Jamaludin, Shariffah S. Jamaludin, Shariffah S.4 44 4, Babatunde Seun , Babatunde Seun K KK K5 55 5 ., ., ., ., Oyeyipo Eyitayo1 11 1, & Oyekola Isaac1 11 1 1Department of Sociology, College of Business and Social Sciences, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria 1Landmark University SDG 1 (No Poverty) 2Landmark University SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) 3Landmark University SDG 5 (Gender Equality) 4School of Social Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia 5 ABSTRACT Independent Researcher, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria Email: Email: babatunde.oluwakemi@lmu.edu.ng babatunde.oluwakemi@lmu.edu.ng

ABSTRACT

Infertility as an integral aspect of reproductive health has often been ignored in developing nations where it is mostly involuntary, constituting grave ills to infertile persons and their families. Virtually all attentions are geared towards addressing more supposedly salient reproductive health concerns and the worries of high population growth to the point that the ills of infertility are deemed insignificant. This study reveals the lived experience of infertility among childless Igbomina women in Kwara South, Nigeria using a social constructionist approach. Data set from in-depth interviews of thirteen childless women were used. The results were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis. ATLAS.ti 8 was used to organize data, identify the codes, themes, and verify the analysis. The study showed that childless women experience infertility as a riddle, as sitting on a time bomb, as though the world is unfair to childless women and as an existential crisis. This study supports the claims that experience of infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa are somewhat founded on androcentric culture and religious sentiments. Nevertheless, it challenges studies that report that women are arbitrarily blamed for infertility. The findings show the need to renegotiate this sociocultural aspect of infertility and integrate them into designing culture-specific intervention programs on the management of infertility and other strategies aimed at improving reproductive healthcare in Nigeria. Keyword – Infertility, childlessness, lived experience, reproductive health, cultural sociology