Introduction: The decline in fertility and childbearing tendency in Iran is due to various demographic, economic, social, and cultural variables. The present research was conducted to review studies carried out on factors affecting the decline in childbearing. Methods: This systematic review searched for articles published from 2011 to 2017 in all the available Iranian and foreign databases, including SID, Magiran, Irandoc, Medlib, Pubmed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Proquest using the following keywords, “ childbearing” , “ fertility” , “ fertility decline” and “ population decline” . The search ultimately led to the inclusion of 53 studies. Results: The main factors affecting the decline in childbearing discussed in the 53 reviewed articles were divided to three general categories: 1. Personal and family factors, including aging, older age at marriage, current number of children, the duration of marriage, the mean birth spacing, gender preferences, hopefulness, marital satisfaction, and quality of life, 2. Socioeconomic factors, including social support, education, occupation and social participation, especially of females, place of residence and the effect of social networks, 3. Cultural factors, including modernity, urbanization and industrialization, attitude change towards the value of children, changes in family values and religion. Conclusions: To intervene in the decline in childbearing and to increase the success rate of the designed plans and strategies, policy-makers and planners should provide strategies to deal with all the three noted groups of factors affecting childbearing.

Fertility as a social action occurs in the socio-cultural context. Cultural and Institutional arrangements shape the values and norms of childbearing. Iranian fertility rate has experienced a dramatic decline in recent decades, and now is below-replacement level. Fertility transition in Iran is related to socio-cultural, economic and political changes. Using micro-census data and survey, the results of article show culture and cultural values, as the basis of human behaviors, plays an important role in shaping fertility behavior. Culture provide the rules of interpretation and meaning construction, that people depending on them, and in coping with socio-economic conditions, regulate their reproductive behaviors. The article concluded that the interaction of cultural and institutional/ structural forces leads to below- replacement level of fertility in Iran. Thus, increasing fertility to above replacement level, is multidimensional and complex policy-making process. It involves adopting and implement of sustainable family-friendly policies related to childbearing desirability, childbearing feasibility, and abilities to parenting.

Fertility in Iran has declined rapidly during the last three decades. Although several studies have analyzed the trends and determinants of fertility declines, few studies have considered the relationship between family change and fertility. Using the institutional framework for analysis of fertility, this study examines the impact of certain dimensions and changes of family on fertility attitudes and behaviors with particular emphasize on Yazd province. The main data source used in this study comes from "the Iran Fertility Transition Survey" as well as other relevant data sources.Results of the study indicate that rapid changes have taken place in fertility attitudes and behaviors while traditional elements of family have experienced continuity and change in recent years. In summary, the sharp fertility decline in Iran cannot be explained by changes in family as the rapid fall of fertility has not been accompanied by rapid changes of traditional elements of family life, and contrary to the prediction of some scholars, no linear convergence has been observed towards Western nuclear family in Iran.