Abstract
Background: Bilateral tubal ligation is the commonest method of contraception worldwide; but is yet to gain wide acceptance in Nigeria as a result of many factors. These include ignorance, illiteracy, superstitious beliefs amongst others. Objectives: To find out the knowledge and attitude of antenatal attendees in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, towards bilateral tubal ligation. Methodology: This cross sectional descriptive study involved a coded questionnaire interview of some antenatal mothers at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between February and April 2013. Data entry and analysis employed SPSS 15.0 for Windows statistical software. Results: Most of the respondents were in their third decade of life (59.3%), nulliparous (64.5%), and married (97.9%) with tertiary level of education (69.2%). Christians dominated the cohort with preponderance of Pentecostals (51.7%). The knowledge of bilateral tubal ligation amongst the respondents was low. About 52.5% had never heard of bilateral tubal ligation while only 35.5% knew the correct meaning of this. Only 18.3% of the respondents would consider undergoing bilateral tubal ligation in future after completing their family size. The reasons which the respondents gave for never wanting to accept bilateral tubal ligation include permanent nature of the method, fear of operation, and unexpected child loss amongst others. Health personnel/facility was the leading source of information on bilateral tubal ligation. Conclusion: The low level of knowledge and awarenessabout bilateral tubal ligation and some of the negative attitudes and views held against it as identified in this study calls for a more comprehensive and concerted effort on information, education and counselling of the citizenry especially women of reproductive age.
Highlights
Bilateral tubal ligation is an increasingly common method of contraception, and is the most commonly used method of fertility regulation worldwide [1,2]
The incidence of bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) worldwide is rising and in New South Wales, a study revealed that 70% of sterilization operations were performed for contraceptive management only while 11% were concurrent with caesarean section [2]
About 52.5% of the respondents had never heard of bilateral tubal ligation while only 35.5% knew the correct meaning of bilateral tubal ligation
Summary
Bilateral tubal ligation is an increasingly common method of contraception, and is the most commonly used method of fertility regulation worldwide [1,2]. Considering present advances in contraceptive technology, bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) stands out as one of the most efficient, safe and popular method, especially in the developed countries, with an incidence of 28-33. The use of bilateral tubal ligation has become the most commonly used family planning method globally, the prevalence. Bilateral tubal ligation is the commonest method of contraception worldwide; but is yet to gain wide acceptance in Nigeria as a result of many factors. These include ignorance, illiteracy, superstitious beliefs amongst others
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