{^1,2Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology} {³Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics}

Prakash Institute of Medical Science & Research, Islampur INDIA.

Email: kishkita@rediffmail.com, drsudhirgavali65@gmail.com, drujwallagavali18@gmail.com

RESULTS

225 women were interviewed during study period. Majority of participants were from 15-24 years age (42.7%), Hindu by religion (76.9%), married (51.6%), used contraceptive (63.1%) and not conceived yet (58.7%).

Table 1: General characteristics.

Condom (62.0%) was most commonly used contraceptive in present study. Other contraceptives used were oral pills (32.4%), copper-T (22.5%), others (injection) (19.7%), tubectomy (12.0%) and vasectomy (7.7%).

Table 2: Contraceptive Method Used

(* - Multiple responses by some patients)

Study participants opine that prevention of unwanted births (79.6%), prevention of sexually transmitted disease (71.1%), having a child when required (69.8%), spacing of birth (55.1%), improvement of health (39.6%) anddecrease the economic burden of family (20.9%) were main reasons for using contraceptives.

Table 3: Opinion on reason for using contraceptive

(* - Multiple responses by some patients)

In the opinion of participants, inexpensive (74.7%) was most common cause for preferential use of contraceptives. Other reasons were comfortable and easy to use (63.6%), easily available (60.0%), other (54.2%) and husband’s choice (16.0%).

Table 4: Opinion for using preferential contraception.

(* - Multiple responses by some patients)

Regarding non-use of contraceptives, participants opined that were desire for children (93.8%), lack of awareness (74.2%), fear of side effects (54.2%), non-availability (45.8%), pressure from husband /family (34.7%) and prohibition by religion (29.8%) major reasons.

Table 5: Opinion Causes for the non-use of contraceptives

(* - Multiple responses by some patients)

DISCUSSION

One of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) calls on countries “by 2030, to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes”.⁵ Family planning is defined as a way of thinking and living being voluntarily adopted by an individual or couples based upon the knowledge, attitude and responsible decisions in order to promote the health and welfare of the family groups and thus contribute effectively to the social development of a country.⁶ Attitudes are not gained by birth, they are learned and adopted by experiences and culturally gained during socialization. Though education plays a major role for attitude towards family planning, other major factors are experiences such as pregnancy, previous believes. In study by Nidhi S et al.,⁷ knowledge about different contraceptive methods was present among majority (96.2%) of respondents. Only 48.2% respondents were using contraceptive method at the time of study. 31.4% had adopted tubectomy as permanent sterilization method followed by oral contraceptives (26.1%), condom (21.4%), intra-uterine device (13.7%), traditional methods (4.3%), injectables (2.1%), emergency contraception (0.7%) and vasectomy (0.3%) respectively. The reason given by most of the respondents (25.3%) for not using any contraceptive method was the desire for a male child. The use of contraceptive methods increased with increasing age, number of living children and level of literacy. Conclusion: The substantial gap between knowledge and adoption in contraceptive methods was found in the study population. Devaru JS et al.,⁸ noted that nearly half of the subjects correctly knew about types of barriers methods, hormonal contraceptives and commonest complication of IUCD. Majority of women were aware about female sterilization. These results to much extent agree with the results of a study conducted by Devaru et al. where majority of the study subjects had adequate awareness regarding female sterilization, IUCD complications and barrier methods of contraception. The use of contraceptive methods was found to be increased with increasing age, number of living children and level of literacy of respondent and husbands. Mohanan P et al.,⁹ reported that the acceptors of contraception were more in the higher age group, and 70.7% of the women with 3 or more children were among the acceptors of permanent methods of contraception as against 29.3% with 1 or 2 living children. Shabana Anjum et al.,¹⁰ noted that, 42.5% were from the age group of 28-37 years, 64.7% were had age at marriage was18-25 most of them were having more than one child while 53.8% and more than half of them were housewife 52.9% and among them maximum had high school education 23.8% . Majority of women knew about female sterilization 93.6% followed by the chemical method (oral pills) 72% and mechanical method of family planning (loop and condoms 48.3%. After the health education married women knowledge was improved to 100% about female sterilization followed by condom 99%, skin implants 86%, oral pills 85% and emergency contraceptives 85%. Sociodemographic variable were significantly associated with existing knowledge and level of married women specially age at marriage, age at first child, occupation, income, education. Similar findings were noted in present study.

Jahan U et al.,⁴ studied 1050 married women of reproductive age. Most of the women were between 21-34 years of age (60.1%) and had primary level of education (40%). It was observed that with increase in level of education, awareness also increased (77.7%). The most common source of information was mass media (53.2%). Contraceptive prevalence rate was 62.9%, higher than the national data as 28.5%. Most of them (93.1%) were aware of at least one family planning method. The most commonly known were OCPs (74.8%), condom (68.8%) and IUCD (56.6%). Awareness about female sterilization (36.4%) was more than male sterilization (25.3%). 62.9% had used at least one contraceptive method, three prevailing methods used were condom (65.1%), OCPs (31.8%) and IUCD (9.09%). Reasons precluding women from practicing contraception were desire to have a child (60.5%), lack of knowledge (42.4%), and unbearable side effects (25.5%). Majority (92.4%) thought that contraceptive use was beneficial but only (27.2%) expressed the willingness to start practicing contraception if they received more information about the subject. Qazi M et al.,¹¹ studied 200 women, maximum respondents belong to age group of 21-25 years (75.6%). Most of the contraceptive non-users belong to age below 20 years (62.5%). In 45% of respondents, media was the main source of information. Preferred spacing method was condom in 85% of cases. 68% women had knowledge of female sterilization. According to most women, family planning methods are meant for limitations of birth (43%) and 36% meant for spacing of birth. 80% women had positive attitude towards contraceptive usage. 50% experienced side effects with the use of contraceptives. The most common side effect was menstrual irregularities in 25% of cases. Most common reason for not using contraceptive methods among non-respondents was lack of knowledge in 50% of cases. Barriers are the factors that affect the utilization and acceptance of family planning methods. In present study most common reported barriers were unawareness about existing method, fear of side effects and least reported barriers were costs too much and sexual displeasure. In a study conducted by Prateek et al.,¹² which observed that unacceptance by family/husband/religion, perceived fear of side effects and lack of knowledge are the most common reasons towards lesser use of contraceptive methods. Sahasrabuddhe et al.,¹³ reported family interference, cultural as well as religious restrictions followed by health concern and fear of permanent loss of fertility as primary reasons for lesser acceptance and usage of family planning measures. In recent years, the need for studies to understand the factors determining the acceptance of contraception and practices by particular communities has been felt, so that more specific knowledge can be gained about factors determining acceptance contraception practices by particular communities, which can then be used for developing suitable program for them.

CONCLUSION

In present study, due to having good knowledge, utilization of contraceptives was better. Lack of knowledge, large family norm, religious myth, cultural barriers, ignorance regarding use and side effects of various contraceptive methods are common reasons for inadequate practice of family planning methods.

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