HOW FAMİLY PLANNİNG SERVİCES WERE AFFECTED DURİNG THE COVID-19 PANDEMİC?

Abstract

This study was planned to determine how family planning services were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our descriptive study was carried out at the Gynecology and Pediatrics Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul.The study population consisted of sexually active women aged 18-40 who applied to the hospital between January and March 2022 and volunteered to participate in the study.As a result of the power analysis in determining the study sample, the sample size was determined as 390 women.The data used in the study were collected through face-to-face interviews. In our study,it was found that 79.5% of sexually active women with a mean age of 30.78±5.7 years could not receive FP services during the COVID-19 pandemic, one out of every five women had difficulty accessing modern contraceptive materials, and one out of every four unintended pregnancies resulted in abortion.It was determined that due to the COVID-19, 72.8% of women could not get FP service because they had problems accessing the health institution,80.3% could not get FP services because health institutions were dense,87.9% could not get FP service because they could not get an appointment from health institutions and 25% could not get FP service because they were afraid of the risk of the COVID-19 transmission in health institutions. The critical purpose of FP services in community-based nursing services is to prevent unintended pregnancies and ensure safe motherhood.Our study's high rate of inaccessibility (79.5%) to AP services proves that FP services are interrupted during the COVID-19 period.