Study showing skewed boy-girl birth ratio in Indian-born moms questioned by researcher
'You need to find out the hows and whys and explanations,' researcher says
A Toronto researcher says there are holes in a study that found Indian-born women in Canada with two or more children are giving birth to more baby boys than expected — figures that led the study's authors to suggest that abortions related to sex selection may be a major reason.
Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui, a PhD candidate and researcher at McMaster University's Department of Sociology, says she finds the numbers "a little bit vague."
The study, which was published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, claimed women who immigrated from India who already had two children gave birth to 138 boys for every 100 girls. If they already had three children, they give birth to 166 males for every 100 females. That ratio rises to 326 boys per 100 girls for Indian-born mothers with two daughters who had an abortion preceding her third birth.
Those are higher ratios than are found in the rest of the population, the researchers said.
"You need to find out the hows and whys, and explanations," Ghaffar-Siddiqui told CBC News. "And if this is true based on simple health records, why did these people choose to [have abortions]? Did they know about other options or speak to someone about that? Did they get all the care they should have got before taking that step?"
Ghaffar-Siddiqui said statistical studies are important but added that qualitative research is equally crucial "so that people don't read something like this and paint everyone with the same brush.
Marcelo Urquia of St. Michael's Hospital is the lead author of the study.
Ghaffar-Siddiqui wants to know how he arrived at the idea Indian-born women preferred to give birth to boys.
"I'd like to ask him how he came about that understanding there is a cultural preference," Ghaffar-Siddiqui said. "It seems to me that it was an assumption that was made."
In a study that Ghaffar-Siddiqui conducted, she said she found that "women and elderly people were the two most vulnerable groups in need of a good relationship with their doctor.
"Maybe that would be where the doctor would pass them on to social services or mental health services, somewhere where they could open up and talk about problems or pressures," she said. "Once we define who these people are and if we do have this problem, it'd be very important to look at relationships within the health care system."
Ghaffar-Siddiqui said she wasn't surprised when she first heard about the study.
"I've been exposed to people talking about a preference, especially for the first child.. to have a boy," she said. "They think boys will take care of them. But this perception is changing. It's not set in stone."