Attitude Of Couple Toward Modern Family Planning Practice

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction.

The purple of this study is to investigates attitude of couple toward modem family practice in Birnin Gwari. This chapter will discuss literatures related to the topic under the following sub-headings.

2.1 Concept of family planning.

This section presents the concepts of family planning, attitude, and practice. These concepts have been defined by many in varied ways. A few of such definition relevant to the work is hereby reviewed.

The World Health Organization, WHO (1991) defies family as a way of thinking and living that is adopted voluntarily, upon the basis of knowledge, attitude and responsible decisions by individuals and couples,  in order to promote the health and welfare of the family group and thus contribute effectively to the social development of a country. Weiner (1990) conceptualized family planning as having the number of children you want, when you want them. Delano (1990) has its that family planning is a means by which individuals or couple space the process of conception, pregnancy and childbirth at intervals mutually determined by both husband and wife, in order to have the desired number of children that they can conveniently maintain, family planning also assists couple who have difficulty in having children. Dixon-Meller and Germain (1992) conceived family planning as not only the ability to avoid childbearing when it is not wanted but also the ability to ensure childbearing when it is wanted. According to Lucas and Gilles (2006), family planning is to encourage couple to take responsible decision about pregnancy and enable them to achieve their wishes with regard to preventing unwanted pregnancies, securing desired pregnancy, spacing of pregnancies and limiting the size of the family Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, NDHS (2003] defined family planning as the use of modem contraceptive or natural techniques, to limit or space pregnancies, O Koye and Okoye (2007) conceptualized family planning as couple conscious of fort to regulate the number of the children they would have. Wikipedia (2008) viewed family planning as a regimen of one or more action, devices, or medication followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth. Family planning means birth control or contraception is a deliberate prevention of pregnancy, using any of the several approved methods the principle is to prevent size cells of the female and male partner from meeting and fertilization.

Family planning can be define as a means by which fertile couple have the method available to control, space and limit the size of their families according to their own desire so that any child born to this couples is born of choice not by chance.

  Modem family planning methods refer to contraceptive methods of family planning other than traditional or natural family planning methods. Contraceptive methods are by definition, preventive methods that help the women avoid unwanted pregnancy resulting from coitus (Park, 2007). The modem contraceptive devices are nothing but a modification of the old, with clearer understanding of their mode of actions and adverse effect, if any. they are safe and more reliable than the formerly accepted traditional methods (Okoye and Okoye, 2007). Modem family planning methods may be broadly grouped intro-two classes namely, spacing methods and terminal methods these methods are further categorized into three sub-categories which include: non-appliance methods, appliance methods and surgical methods.

Oreachata (2007) referred to non-appliance methods as non-manipulative methods of family planning such pills which are taken orally to prevent pregnancy. Whereas appliance methods according to park (2007), refer to any contraceptive instrument, drug, preparation or thing designed, prepared or intended to prevent pregnancy resulting between human beings. Appliance methods include spermicides, condoms, diaphragm, intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUCDs), Depo-Provera, implant, and abortion. Surgical methods of family planning on the other hand are simple or minor surgical operations for permanent contraception. They include tubal ligation (female sterilization) and vasectomy (male sterilization). Tubal ligation and vasectomy are irreversible family planning methods which once done, the woman or man cannot have children again. The presence of all these family planning methods elicits some attitudes towards them which may be either positive or negative.

Anderson (1981) opined that attitude is a moderately intense emotion that prepares or predisposed individual to respond consistently in a favorable or unfavorable manner when confronted with a particular object. Bolan (1981) asserted that attitudes about health-related behaviour help to determine what an individual does in a give situation. Murdary(1993] viewed attitude as a feeling tone directed toward a person, object or ideas .Okafor (1991) observed that attitude is concerned with ones feeling toward an object, person or thing. Dieghton (1991) considered attitude as a predisposition to classify object or events, and to reach to them with some degree of evaluative consistency. Kerlinger (1992] perceived attitude as an organized predisposition to think, feel, perceive and behave toward a referent or cognitive object. According to Adebajo (1992), attitude refers to the sum total of the people’s inclinations and feelings, prejudices or bias, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats and convictions. Allport (1995) stated that attitude is a mental or neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. He added that attitudes are hypothetical constructs, that is, they are inferred but not objectively observable, it is manifested in conscious experience, verbal reports, gross behaviour and psychological symptoms. Osarenren (1996) defined attitude as a mental and neural state of readiness organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations which it is related.