Contraceptive Knowledge and Practices in Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dr. Uroosa Farooq Allaqband; Dr. Rohul Jabeen Shah; Dr. Anjum B Fazili; Dr. Mohammad Zahoor Hamdani

Volume : IX, Issue : VI, June - 2020

Contraceptive Knowledge and Practices in Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dr. Uroosa Farooq Allaqband, Dr. Rohul Jabeen Shah, Dr. Anjum B Fazili, Dr. Mohammad Zahoor Hamdani

Abstract :

Background: Uncontrolled Population has been India�s major problem since independence. Adoption of family planning methods is one of the best solutions to tackle this problem. India was the first country to start family planning programme in the year 1952. Family Planning basically, refers to the practices that help individuals or couples to avoid unwanted birth, regulate the intervals between pregnancies, control the time at which births occurs in relation to the age of parents and determines the number of children in the family. Objective: To assess the knowledge and practice about contraceptive methods among women attending family planning clinic. Materials and methods: A descriptive study on women aged 18– 49 year was conducted using a structured questionnaire between September 2019 and October 2019 at family planning clinic of department of community medicine of a tertiary care institute. Results: It was found that 73.6% of the women belonged to 20–30 yrs age group, 80.8% were urbanites ,43.2% were graduates, majority ( 92.0%) of women were home maker by occupation, 64% were having one living child and 44% of the women belonged to upper socio–economic class. Correct knowledge on various aspects of contraception was varied e.g. 88% of women knew that contraceptives are used for spacing purposes where as 89.6% did not know about emergency contraception. Majority (99.2%) considered that having contraceptive knowledge was necessary, 81.6% were having knowledge about all spacing as well as terminal methods, 60.8% were aware about side effects of oral contraception. 35.2% of the women were currently using contraception and rest of the 64.8% were those who had come for contraceptive advice or its use. Conclusion: Women in this study had fair knowledge and practices of contraception which need to be preserved and boosted from time to time but on those aspects were it was poor targeted and well–organized educational campaigns are needed especially for women who are uneducated, belonging to rural areas and lower socioeconomic strata.