Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Ikwo Rural Women Towards Birth Control
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The main objective of this study is to examine the Knowledge, attitude and perception of ikwo rural women towards birth control. Specifically, the study aims to:
- Describe selected personal characteristics such as (age, marital status, religion, educational qualification) of the rural women in the study area.
- Identify rural women’s sources of information on Birth control.
- Determine the awareness and identify the type of contraceptive method utilize by rural women in the study area.
- Identify factors militating against the utilization of Birth control methods among rural women.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Review
Concepts of Birth control
Birth control is the planning of when to have and use birth techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexual education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted diseases, pre-conception counselling, management and infertility management (Olaitan, 2009). However, Birth control is usually used as a synonym for the use of birth control. It is most adopted by couples who wish to limit the number of children they want to have and control the timing of pregnancy, also known as spacing of children (Olaitan, 2009).
Birth control may encompass sterilization, as well as pregnancy termination. It also includes raising a child with methods that require significant amount of resources namely: time, social, financial and environmental. Birth control measures are designed to regulate the number and spacing of children within a family, largely to curb population growth and ensure each family has access to limited resources. The first attempt to offer Birth control services began with private groups and often aroused strong opposition. Activists, such as Margaret Sanger in the U.S., Marie Stopes in England and Dhanvanthis Rama Rou in India, eventually succeeded in establishing clinics for Birth control and health care. Today, many countries have established national policies and encouraged the use of public family services (The United Nations and World Health Organisation offer technical assistance, 2006).
The concept of informed choice in Birth control can be applied to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health decisions. It focuses on whether to seek, to avoid pregnancy, whether to space and time one’s childbearing, whether to use contraception, what family methods to be used, and whether or when to continue or switch methods. The term Birth control choice could also refer to the family decision making (Diaz et al., 1999).
The principles of informed attitude of women of childbearing age focus on the individual; however, it also influences a range of outside factors such as: social-economic,cultural norms, gender roles, social networks, religious and local beliefs. To a large extent, these community norms determine individual childbearing preferences and sexual and reproductive behaviour. It is usually thought that community and culture affect a person’s attitudes towards Birth control, desire for sex of children, preferences about family size, family pressures to have children and whether or not Birth control accords with customs and religious beliefs.
Community norms also reflect how much autonomy individuals have in making Birth control decisions. The larger the differences in reproductive intentions within a community, the more likely that community norms support individual choices (Barnett and Stein, 2001).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine Knowledge, attitude and perception of Ikwo rural women towards birth control. Selected villages in Ikwo Local Government Area Of Ebonyi State form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Data Presentation
Selected personal characteristics
The result in Table 2 revealed that the respondents’ highest age range falls between the age brackets of 31-35 years. This is because the age range of 31-35 years is still within the child bearing age, so also (0.8%) of the respondents’ age falls between 46-50 years; this can be attributed to the fact that the age range is close to menopause stage.
As revealed in Table 2, most of the respondents (80.0%) are married, 2.5% of the respondent are divorced while 4.2% are single. However, the use of Birth control method is common among the married people because they are still in the business of child bearing (Omu, 1986). About 4.2% of the respondents that are single attested to the fact that they use Birth control method in order to prevent unwanted conception before they marry.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on the Knowledge, attitude and perception of ikwo rural women towards birth control, ikwo Local government area as case study. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
Summary of the Study
In this study, our focus was on the Knowledge, attitude and perception of ikwo rural women towards birth control, ikwo Local government area as case study. The study is was specifically focused on Describing selected personal characteristics such as (age, marital status, religion, educational qualification) of the rural women in the study area, identifying rural women’s sources of information on Birth control, Determining the awareness and identify the type of contraceptive method utilize by rural women in the study area and Identifying factors militating against the utilization of Birth control methods among rural women.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 115 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are rural women in ikwo Local government area.
Conclusions
With respect to the analysis and the findings of this study, the following conclusions emerged;
It is concluded that majority of the rural women in ikwo Local government area were young and married adults with secondary education. Most of these women were aware that prolonged breast feeding, contraceptive pills, coitus interuptus, condom and safe period calculation can be used as family planning methods. Reliable sources (health personnel) were being utilised for information on family planning, which gave them adequate knowledge of the subject and consequently led to high utilisation of family planning methods among them. Many of them thus always used adequate family planning methods such as contraceptive pills and condom. However, relatively
high proportion of these women depended on uncertain family planning methods such as safe period calculation and coitus interuptus. Major reasons why family planning is not as popular as it ought to be among these women were the stereotypes that contraceptive pills make blood pressure go up, family planning promotes promiscuity, family planning is against the culture and reduces household labour.
Recommendation
Based on the findings the researcher recommends that;
- The study showed that adequate information is one of the factors influencing the utilization of family planning methods. The study therefore recommended that family planning providers should provide accurate, unbiased and essential information about the various contraceptive methods. This would remove the problem of both real and imagined side effects of helping women to make informed choices.
- Women’s educational level is still generally low in the rural areas and knowledge was found to be positively correlated with contraceptive utilization. The study therefore recommended that policies that would encourage and enhance girl-child education should be enforced in the rural areas of Nigeria. Among other factors that influence contraceptive use such as age, number of children born, sources of information, education is the only variable that could easily be manipulated by policy makers to achieve a desired increase in contraceptive use.
- The study revealed that spousal approval was the major reason for use of contraceptive methods. It is without doubt that men wield considerable influence in the use of contraceptives and their acceptance and involvement in family planning utilization would provide a big push for the use of family planning methods among women. This study recommended that, the male population be fully integrated in the family planning programmes.
- The establishment of Guidance and Counselling Unit (GCU) should be given prominence in all the available health centres or clinics located in the rural areas of the State. Aside this, the family planning unit of the health centres or clinics should have a qualified professional that will be able to handle the issue of health guidance and health counselling.
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