Contraceptive usage and its relationship to wanted or unwanted pregnancy
Bali, P.; Murali, I.
Indian Journal of Medical Research 63(10): 1495-1502
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5340 PMID: 1222961 Document Number: 506418
Women (971) who delivered in a hospital in India were studied regarding their usage of family planning methods before the current pregnancy and their attitude towards the current pregnancy. Some family planning methods were being used by 25.5% of the women, the maximum being condoms used by the husbands (84%). A higher proportion of the users belonged to age group 25-35 yr, parity P1-P3, socio-economic class II and III. A higher proportion of illiterate mothers were non-users (34%) compared to 9.6% among users; 44% of users were higher secondary and college educated compared to 28.2% non-users. With regard to husband's education 88.4% of users had completed higher secondary and college compared to 60.1% among non-users; the proportion of illiterates among users was only 0.4% compared to 11.2% among non-users. The family planning method was related to the attitude toward current pregnancy, whether it was wanted or not. Of 599 mothers whose current pregnancy was unwanted only 104 were practicing some method to prevent pregnancy.