Male partners and medical staff's perception on contributing factors of Family Planning (FP) in Fiji

Mohammed Imtishal,Masoud Mohammadnezhad

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06068

Abstract

IntroductionMale partners play an important role in Family Planning (FP) as they are directly involved in the decision making of FP with their partners. Medical staff are also involved with FP services that have a direct relation to usage of FP among the men and women. This study is aimed to explore the perception of male partners and the medical staff about factors affecting FP decision in Fiji. Materials and methodsThe qualitative study was carried out among men who were partners of the pregnant women, and medical staff at Ba Mission Hospital (BMH), Fiji in 2019. The study utilised semi-structured questionnaire to guide four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) among 10 male partners and 10 medical staff. Interview was audio transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. ResultThe common themes identified from the male interviews were the opposition of male partners, religious norms and cultural beliefs, accessibility of contraception, and previous FP failure. The common themes identified from the medical staff interviews were; effectiveness of counseling, concerns on men involvement in FP, and barriers towards FP. ConclusionThis study reveals the need for better counseling, more awareness on FP for men and more involvement of men by the medical staff in FP practices.

Highlights

Male partners play an important role in Family Planning (FP) as they are directly involved in the decision making of FP with their partners
The male partners were asked whether they support or oppose their wife in FP and one of the participants mentioned about the effect of cultural and family beliefs against FP use
“I had a chat with my dad when I got married and he said that my mum never used it and that my dad never allowed her to use due to side effects as he said if women take contraception, they will get fat” (31 year old, Fijian of Indian descent)

Summary

Introduction

Male partners play an important role in Family Planning (FP) as they are directly involved in the decision making of FP with their partners. The common themes identified from the medical staff interviews were; effectiveness of counseling, concerns on men involvement in FP, and barriers towards FP. The decision of family is affected by the male partner as women whose male partner refuses FP are 19% less likely to use contraception as compared to those where the male partners accept FP (Mboane and Bhatta, 2015). For some women their male partners do not allow them to practice FP for various reasons such as social stigma, family pressure, and disapproval from elders in the family who discourage FP use (Gonie, 2018). Previous studies conducted identified that there was lack of information about male contraception, the side effects of female contraception disrupted sexual life, some believed that contraception was only for females, while others shared their fear of extramarital affairs due to females using contraception and some disapproved as they wanted large families (Kabegenyi et al, 2012; Apanga and Adam, 2015; Tilahun et al, 2013; Schultz et al, 2018)

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