COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WOMEN TOWARDS FAMILY PLANNING (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
What is family planning?
Family planning is the spacing of the health welfare of the family group (or a couple) involving an action on the number of children they are going to have. Also family planning is the voluntary planning and action taken by individuals to prevent, delay or achieve a pregnancy.
The above definition is in line with Akinyode (2007) view which sees it as an agreement between couples to consider the health of the mother, the health of the body and also the economic benefit of the family.
It also includes the prevention and treatment of the sub-fertility and education for parenthood, as well as growth and development and the problems of abortion.
Family planning services include counselling and education, screening, laboratory tests and all approved methods of contraception.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The centres for disease control characterize family planning as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20thcentury. In 1800, women had an average of 7 children, today, women have an average of 2-1 children. A woman is fertile for an average of 35 years of her life. If she has two children, she will spend about 30 years of her life avoiding pregnancy. Family planning information and services help individuals maintain their overall health, financial conditions and personal situations are optimal. The practice of family planning helps in reducing the rates of unintended pregnancies of maternal and child mortality and of induced abortions.
In addition, using contraceptives have been shown to promote a woman’s sense of autonomy and increase her ability to make decision in other arrears of her life. Reproductive health for a woman includes her ability to space, delay or limit children as well as her experience with infertility, child loss or planned or unplanned childlessness.
Although around half of married women worldwide now use a modern method of contraceptive, an estimated 200 million women in the world who wish to stop having children or delay their next birth for at least 2 years are not using an effective contraceptives method.
According to the family health survey 57% of ever-married women are currently using a method of family planning, and of them 42% are using modern contraceptives.
The intrauterine device (IVD) was the method most used by married women (22%) followed by the oral contraceptive pill (8%).
