Knowledge, practices and barriers in family planning.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the knowledge, practices and barriers of family planning in child bearing age women.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Obstet-rics and Gynecology unit II Dr. Ruth K.M Pfau civil hospital Karachi from April 2019 to June 2019. During this period 399 women after being discharged from hospital were assessed for knowledge, practices of contraception and presumed barriers for using contraception. The responses were documented on self-designed question-naire.
Results: Mean age of candidates was 29.72 ±4.72 years. 66% women were not for-mally educated. 88.7% of women had knowledge about family planning methods and the major source of information was friends and relatives (42%). Only 40.6% women were practicing contraception and majority of them were using barrier method (24.6%). Any method was not used by 59.4% of women due to multiple reasons. The major barrier was fear of side effects (27.6%).
Conclusion: Our study population was well aware about contraceptive methods but underutilized due to family pressures .Women education and counseling along with husband and mother in law can improve family planning measures. The government and media should do active measures in spreading information about various availa-ble methods of contraception and their side effects.

Keywords: Knowledge, Practices, Barriers, Contraception