A Study on Use of Means of Family Planning Services by the Reproductive Age Married Women: A Case Study of Badimalika Municipality-8, Bajura District of Nepal

Abstract

The study has been carried out on the use of means of family planning services by the reproductive age at Badimalika municipality, ward no. 8, Bajura district. The study deals with the use of means of family planning services and knowledge among reproductive age married women, and factors affecting their use. The research has followed descriptive method to analyze the knowledge of family planning services and the factors affecting their use in the field. Data were collected through simple random sampling method to collect the 135 sample households with reproductive age married women. In total 3710 households were recorded in the study area by Central Bureau of Statistics. The study population representative sample of about 23 percent was 853. Thus the 15 percent sample size amounted to 135 number of households. The data was collected using household survey questionnaire and key informants interview. According to the researcher report all 96 percent of respondents of reproductive age group are familiar with at least one method of family planning. Among them 72 percent of respondents of reproductive age group reported their source of knowledge was radio.Among the several methods, use of Depo-Provera was dominant with about 65 percent of both literate and illiterate women and sterilization was at the mere 4 percent. In the majority (69 percent), the decision on using family planning was being taken with mutual understanding between the couples. The main reason for not-using family planning method was found to be not needed (82 percent). About 18 percent also reported side effects of using family planning services. The majority of side effects included weakness (52 percent) and weight loss (35 percent) with others being leg pain and back pain. The risk of method failure of contractive was very minimal (about 4 percent) in the study area. And the major reasons affecting the use of contraceptive measures were fear of side effects (27 percent), social beliefs (24 percent), lack of awareness (21 percent), and refused by family (16 percent). In this study area, almost every respondent was aware of the family planning. They used the radio, television, and health workers to get the knowledge on the same. Among the several methods, use of depo-provera was dominant between literate and illiterate women. And overall positive attitude was found in the field towards family planning. For further improvements, adult education programs, consultations, health posts and check-up programs, expansion of IEC materials should be undertaken.