Family planning awareness and service accessibility among women living with HIV in Myanmar

Abstract

Background: Accessibility and availability of family planning services is critical for improvement in maternal health. There is limited information on awareness and accessibility to family planning services among women living with HIV in Myanmar. Methods: A mixed-methods cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from Feb-March, 2018 at two antiretroviral therapy (ART) centers in Myanmar. Results: This study included 184 women living with HIV. The mean (SD) age was 38 (9) years. In total, 90 women (49%) were married, 10 (5%) were single. Among the respondents, 124 (67%) have never received health education on family planning, and 64 (35%) didn’t know any source of information for family planning services. In the last six months, 55 (30%) of them have used any type of contraception. Among married women, 16 (29%) intended to have a child. One-fourth of women with HIV responded that transmission of HIV from mother to child cannot be preventable. Perceived geographical accessibility to any type of family planning services was measured, and only 7% had high accessibility. The main barriers to accessing family planning information and services among women living with HIV were also explored. Most participants responded that they had poor knowledge and received insufficient information on the family planning services. Some of them mentioned they had financial constraints to access modern contraceptive methods. Key informant interviews with public service providers revealed that there was the lack of referral system, and poor linkage between ART teams and maternal and reproductive health teams for women living with HIV to provide the quality family planning services. Conclusions: This study highlighted the need for awareness raising among women living with HIV about family planning, and effective referral system between maternal and reproductive health unit, and HIV/AIDS care unit in Myanmar.