| Summary: | Since 1994, Oman stands out from the other pronatalist Gulf countries (GGC) by implementing a birth spacing policy that aims to reduce the size of the Omani family. Official narratives on family planning are conveying new ‘modern’ attitudes and reproductive perceptions that entail greater autonomy for the couple’s choices regarding the number of their children. High fertility has long been valued, and the ideal of a small family tends to create a transformation of family relations and conjugal roles, changing notions of masculinities and femininities.The semi-directive interviews conducted in Oman in 2006 with officials and Omanis helped capture the changes undergone by the couple and the family since the birth spacing campaign. The reception of the birth spacing program encountered certain resistances from the older generation, but younger and educated Omanis seem to criticize the reproductive practices of their parents, engendering more individualistic notions related to the quality of children and to the importance of birth planning for the couple.
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