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Knowledge, Attitude And Practices Of Women Towards Family Planning Services
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Family
planning practices help individuals or couples to avoid unwanted
pregnancies, regulate the intervals between pregnancies, control the
time of birth in relation to the age of the parents and determine the
number of children in the family (Reshma 2015). Though contraceptive use
has increased worldwide over the last couple of years, the
contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in low resources countries is very
low. An average of 25% of couples in Sub-Saharan Africa who want to
space their children do not use any form of family planning method. A
report from the National AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS),
2012, in Nigeria indicated that while awareness of contraceptive was
high, the proportion of females using any method and a modern method of
contraception was 13% and 10% respectively. According to Park, (2007),
the methods of modern contraceptives available at the regional and
national levels include: pills, intrauterine contraceptive device,
injectables, implants, male condom, female condom, male and female
sterilization, diaphragm, foam/jelly, lactational ammenorrhoea and
emergency contraception. In a bid to curb the rate of unwanted
pregnancies, effort must be made to increase family planning
utilization. According to the Nigerian Demographic and health Survey,
2013 (NDHS), about 23% of teenage girls between age 15 and 19 years were
already mothers or pregnant with their first child. About 250 out of
1000 adolescent pregnancies in Nigeria end in unsafe abortion and of the
estimated 600,000 induced abortions annually, adolescents contribute
60% (Oyedokun, 2007). Despite this, the level of contraceptive use among
this group has been reported to be low. Young people often decide not
to seek FP because they do not want their parents or other adults to
know they are sexually active, while many fear ridicule and disapproval
from service providers. Apart from unintended pregnancy and maternal
mortality, there is also the problem of sexually transmitted infections,
including HIV. Sentinel survey report of pregnant women aged 15-49
years reported a national prevalence of 4.1% and 10.9% in Akwa Ibom
State in 2010. While the National Demographic and Health Survey 2013
recorded knowledge of contraceptive among women as 85%, the trend in
contraceptive method used by married women aged 15-49 in Nigeria in
1990, 2003, 2008 and 2013 stood at 6%.12.6%,14.6% and 15.1% respectively
(Oyedokun, 2007). These rates are quite low compared to the high sexual
activity, especially among adolescents. Urban dwellers are reported to
have greater access and higher chances of utilizing FP. The rural
communities, which contribute about 70% of Nigeria’s population, have
very high fertility rate and a low CPR. A study in south western Nigeria
however reported the point prevalence of contraceptive use among rural
women as 66.3%. One of the factors influencing utilization is level of
education.
Adebajo, (1992) opined that attitude and practice towards
modern family planning have attracted much attention in recent times.
This is due to increase in unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, induced or
criminal abortion, maternal mortality, sexually transmitted diseases,
human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune-deficiency
syndrome (AIDS) prevalence among women of child- bearing age.
There
is no one universally acceptable definition of attitude. However,
Anderson (1981) opined that attitude is a moderately intense emotion
that prepares or predisposes individuals to respond consistently in a
favourable manner, when confronted with a particular object. Okafor
(1991) stated that attitude is concerned with one‟s feeling towards an
object, person or thing. Cornachia, Station and Irwin (1999) asserted
that an attitude refers to mind-set to action, an internal readiness to
behave or act. Simpson and Weiner (2000) defined attitude as a way of
feeling, thinking or behaving. Aitken (2000) argued that there is no
standard definition of attitude, but in general terms, he perceived the
term to imply a learned predisposition or tendency on the part of the
individual to respond positively or negatively to some objects or
situation. According to Mann (2002), attitude implies a relatively
enduring organization to internalized belief that describes, evaluates
and advances actions with respect to an object or situation with each
belief having cognitive, affective and behavioural components. He
further stated that each one of these beliefs is a predisposition that
suitably activates results in some preferential response towards the
attitude-object or situation or toward the maintenance or preservation
of the attitude itself.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of women towards family planning services. Specifically, the study determined if women are aware of family planning, determined the various types of family planning known by women, determined the sources of information about family planning and, examined the negative attitude of women towards family planning. The study employed the survey descriptive research design. A total of 141 responses were validated from the survey ... Continue reading---
