Men and family planning in Zambia
Pillai, V.K.
Journal of Biosocial Science 25(1): 17-23
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-9320 PMID: 8425881 DOI: 10.1017/s0021932000020241Document Number: 324486
Communication between marriage partners is one way men become familiar with family planning (FP). In this study the role of women's education in husband's familiarity with FP methods is examined among 85 low income (around 4464 kwacha average annual income) male employees of the University of Zambia. The men in the sample were all literate and most were non-Catholic. Wife's work status, husband's monthly income, husband's education, desire for more children, religious affiliation, and urban born were control variables. The findings were that the pill and the IUD were the best-known female methods. 22% knew about condoms, and 8% about vasectomy, but 70% were familiar with abstinence, which is widespread as a traditional FP method among Africans. 78% communicated with their partners about FP and 47% spoke with friends about FP. 29% considered FP a women's responsibility. 44% thought that their mothers would approve of FP use. In the regression analysis, wives' education and religion were significantly related to familiarity of FP methods (p.05). Familiarity increased with increases in wives' level of education. Wives' education was related to use of family planning, i.e., 36% of women with a primary education used FP compared with 12% of women with primary or less education. The government of Zambia encourages modern family planning for child spacing and fertility control. Successful policy implementation will depend on the extent to which women's education is recognized as important in promoting modern methods. Deterrents to modern contraceptive use are the existing laws which require married women to have their husband's permission to obtain contraceptives from clinics. Creating easier access to FP among women is likely to increase familiarity of FP among husbands and equal sharing in decision making about contraception.