Knowledge regarding family planning methods among rural women of Faridkot district of Punjab
Kaur, H.P.
Indian Journal of Behaviour 15(3): 49-55
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0970-0897 PMID: 12286542 Document Number: 326694
A researcher analyzed data on 60 married women of reproductive age living in the villages of Kaoni and Assa Buttar in Faridkot District, Punjab state, India, to determine their knowledge levels of various aspects of family planning methods. 80% of the women could neither read nor write. About half lived in an extended family, while the rest lived in a nuclear family. All the women knew about family planning. The women considered the purpose of family planning to be limiting family size (80%), spacing children (53.3%), and preventing conception of children (33.3%). Indeed 40% used a family planning method to space their children, 33.3% to limit family size, and 26.7% to cease childbearing. The leading known methods included the copper T IUD (100%), tubectomy (93.3%), vasectomy (86.6%), and condom (86.6%). 60% of the women and 13.2% of their husbands used a contraceptive. The major methods ever used were tubectomy (46.6%), condom (26.6%), the loop IUD (13.6%), oral contraceptives (13.3%), and the copper T IUD (13.3%). Friends and relatives constituted the most frequently reported knowledge sources for all family planning methods except jelly, cream, and diaphragm which none of the women knew about. Husbands tended to be the leading information source about condoms. Authorities were not major contributors to these rural women's family planning knowledge. All the women trusted family planning and believed it to be good for their health. 86.6% thought it was also good for their children's health and that it allowed parents to provide a better life for their children. The main reasons for stopping family planning use were 1) wanted a child (20%), 2) physical discomfort (13.3%), and 3) method failure (6.6%). The leading reasons for not using a family planning method at all included 1) wanted a child (20%) 2) unhappy marriage (13.3%), and 3) high cost (6.6%).