Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences

Year: 2003
Volume: 1
Issue: 2
Page No. 121 - 128

Contraception and Factors Affecting its Effectiveness (A Review)

Authors : Shah Mussawar and Ashfaq. A. Man

Abstract: Contraception is one of the needs of to-days age and serious steps for its adoption should be taken in order to ensure better health and prosperous life as more than 100 million women in the world had unmet need for limiting births. Despite of the immense need of birth spacing control, adoption of contraception rate has been very small. About one third of the men were using contraceptives as tools for fertility control. Men were totally or partially excluded from family planning programs in past due to limited funds for male services, predominantly female staff in family planning clinics, negative staff attitude and lack of staff training to better train men. Men participation in family planning was helpful to address the unmet need of women for birth spacing as about 70% of men had planned to use contraception over the next few years in Bangladesh, Burkina, Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan. Involvement of men along women in the family planning was encouraged by 80% men and 86% women as male methods of contraception was the major factor for decline in fertility in Turkey. Similarly, 75% of the women suggested that men should ensure effective use of contraceptives because, 95.5% of husbands approved female contraception in Sri Lanka. Men and women were making joint decisions in Bangladesh and over 70% of women using the pills, or condom said that their husbands rather they themselves obtained the methods. In past cultural means were used to reduce fertility rate, but now condoms, Hormonal implants, Norplant and vasectomy be used to help reduce fertility rate from 4.8 to 3.5 children per woman. Although, knowledge of condoms was nearly universal among ever-users, but only 33% of ever-users knew about vasectomy in Pakistan. Vasectomy was getting increased popularity in Turkey and nearly 700 Turkish males in a shorter period of two years had vasectomy, dispelling the idea of its cultural reluctance. Numerous factors influencing adoption of contraception were concerns about its detrimental side effects (most crucial one), religious misconception, excluding men from family planning and too much emphasis on women regarding contraception, socio-economic conditions, concern about social and cultural acceptability of contraception, educational status, traditional family organization, son preference, predominantly rural population, poverty, fatalistic attitude, male dominance in most of the societies, ignoring community participation in planning, designing/implementation of various strategies, ignorance about vasectomy, family size and working status of the women. Women with career and better education were more likely using condoms and contraceptive rate was the highest and fertility rate the lowest in working women as compared to others in most of the developing countries Economic dependency and subordinate position of the women adversely affected contraceptive use. Getting information on consistent basis, community participation in planning, designing and implementation of various strategies, addressing new family planning method and assuring its effective use in family planning, wives encouragement by husbands, giving due status to women, involving them in household decisions and other related matters, dispelling gender preference, addressing the religious aspects of family planning in a most appropriate way among the Muslims, introduction of family planning in curriculum and involvement of religious scholars world would result in better awareness and enhance adoption rate of contraceptives.

How to cite this article:

Shah Mussawar and Ashfaq. A. Man , 2003. Contraception and Factors Affecting its Effectiveness (A Review) . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 1: 121-128.

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