FAMILY PLANNING UPTAKE AND PERCIEVED DELIVERY OUTCOMES AMONG POSTPARTUMWOMEN IN THE TAMALE METROPOLIS

Abstract

Background: Unintended pregnancies are of significant public health concern globally. About three-quarters of all pregnancies that occur throughout the world each year are unintended. Worryingly, approximately one-fifth of these pregnancies end in abortion, many of which are performed by individuals who lack the requisite skills and techniques to carry out the procedure. Family planning (FP) has been recognized globally as an important intervention aimed at improving maternal and child health as it has been scientifically demonstrated to reduce the burden of maternal and child mortality. However, few studies in Ghana have examined the readiness and current uptake prevalence, the determinants and barriers to postpartum FP uptake. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the readiness and current uptake prevalence, determinants and barriers to FP, and the perceived association between FP uptake and delivery outcomes among postpartum women in the Tamale Metropolis of Ghana. Method: A facility based cross-sectional study was carried out among 505randomly sampled postpartum women receiving care at the child welfare clinics (CWC) of selected facilities. Quantitative data was collected using structured questionnaires and data was analyzed with SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics was used for the socio-demographic characteristics. Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression analysis technique was used to establish the association between the variables of study. Results: Awareness of FP among postpartum women was 96.0%. Despite this, contraceptive prevalence or use among the study respondents was 38%, suggesting the remaining61.8% (118/191) of the postpartum women risk having unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. They everused contraceptive prevalence was 59.2% (299/505), while 40.8% had never used any form of modern contraceptive. Age, educational level, partner’s agreement on number of children to have, religion, occupation and perceived effectiveness of contraceptives were significantly associated with family method uptake. Fear of side effects, cultural beliefs and effects on future fertility were also found to discourage FP uptake. Conclusion: High levels of awareness of FP methods did not necessarily translate into uptake in this study. It is therefore recommended that the Tamale Metropolitan Health Management Team develops and implements educational interventions for postpartum women to enable them understand the importance of using FP methods. Partners’ involvement in FP should be encouraged in order to enhance uptake among women.