Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2023, 11, 76-93 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2023.111008 Jan. 17, 2023 76 Open Journal of Social Sciences Fertility Regulation in Burkina Faso: Refusal to Impose a Fixed Number of Children per Woman, But Attitudes in Favour of Lower Fertility Aristide Romaric Bado 1,2* , Jean-Pierre Guengant 3 , Hamidou I. Maga 4 , Lamoussa R. Zoma 5 , Ibrahim Tall 1 , Fatima Tidiani/Kandine 1 1 DEMSAN Project, West African Health Organisation (WAHO), Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso 2 Departement Biomedical et Santé Publique, Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 3 Institute of Research for Development (IRD), University of Paris I, Paris, France 4 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niamey, Niger 5 Multi Advertise Group, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Abstract Context: Meeting in Ouagadougou in 2017, Burkina Faso, parliamentarians from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS, 15 coun- tries), Mauritania and Chad “invited ECOWAS countries, Mauritania and Chad to work towards reducing their respective total fertility rates to no more than three children per woman by 2030” and to promote really viable and sustain- able development. Has this declaration been well received by the population? This is the question that our research attempts to answer through research conducted in Burkina Faso. Methodology: The research was conducted in several regions of Burkina Faso. It is a mixed study with a quantitative and a qualitative component to analyze the perceptions of the respondents on their appreciation of the ECOWAS parliamentarians’ declaration on 3 children per woman. Results: The results in Burkina Faso showed that 31% of men and 41% of women agreed with the suggestion to stop when reaching three chil- dren. Conversely, 45% of the men and 39% of women surveyed were against “stopping at three children”. The results of this study clearly indicate that the idea of controlling the size of one’s family is much more widely supported than that might be assumed. Conclusion: The debate between the supporters and opponents of birth control within couples is still ongoing. However, fer- tility control issues are still taboo subjects, little discussed by researchers and policy makers. How to cite this paper: Bado, A. R., Guen- gant, J.-P., Maga, H. I., Zoma, L. R., Tall, I., & Tidiani/Kandine, F. (2023). Fertility Reg- ulation in Burkina Faso: Refusal to Impose a Fixed Number of Children per Woman, But Attitudes in Favour of Lower Fertility. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 11, 76-93. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2023.111008 Received: November 28, 2022 Accepted: January 14, 2023 Published: January 17, 2023 Copyright © 2023 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access