Family planning practices among rural community women in Nigeria

Objectives: Couples space the number of years between each child they want to give birth to through the use of contraceptive methods. It is widely reported that people who do not use any birth control plan may lack access or face barriers, which may include partners’ non-acceptance, fear of side effects or risks. This study is therefore carried out to determine the child spacing and family planning strategies, obtain the values and norms that influence the knowledge and practice of family planning, among rural community women of reproductive ages in South-Western Nigeria with a view to making necessary recommendations that would help improve family planning practices. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out in towns across the three senatorial districts of two South-Western states of Ondo & Ekiti in Nigeria. The target population was women of reproductive age group in these districts. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondent. All data were statistically analysed, using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and statistical test of significance was performed with Chi-Square test. Results: A total of 1500 consenting respondents participated in the study with a mean age ± SD of 33.69 ± 11.14 years. The main reason given for choice of family planning was reliability, main source of information is through government-owned hospital health personnel, male condom is the most widely used current family planning method while heavy menstrual period is the commonly known side effect. Conclusion: Indications show that educational status, religious factor and economic status influence family planning and choices made, there is therefore need for more campaign and public enlightenment programs on modern family planning methods, importance, choices and benefits, crucially including the religious leaders, in order to fast track the information spread and further improve the use of modern contraceptive methods.