Privately-Owned Family Planning Services In Enugu Nigeria: Availability And Trends In Service Utilization

Abstract

Service utilization in the two government-owned family planning clinics in Enugu has been low. It is not known whether this represents a true decline in family planning practice or clients preference for private family planning service providers. A crosssectional survey of all the 266 registered private hospitals, clinics and maternity centres in Enugu was conducted to determine the availability of privately-owned family planning services as well as the trends of family planning service utilization in such health facilities. 31 out of the 266 private health facilities (i.e. 11.7%) were offering family planning services. 27 (87.1%) facilities reported increasing trends in service utilization while 4 (12.9%) facilities reported no change in trends. No facility reported a falling trend. The major factors reported to be responsible for the rising trends were; increased mass media enlightenment (67.7%), economic realities of large families (58%), and better accessibility to family planning services (54.8%).The rising trend in service utilization in most of the private family planning clinics in Enugu suggests that clients prefer private family planning services which might explains the declining patronage of public FP clinics.