Abstract
BackgroundWomen who live in remote rural areas encounter different challenges against contraception and often deny the use of modern contraceptive methods. The predictors of modern contraceptive utilization by pastoralist women in the Bale eco-region could be specific and are not well known. Therefore, this study aims to assess modern contraceptive utilization and its determinants among married pastoralist women in Bale eco-region, Oromia regional state, South East Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 20th November 2015 to 30th February 2016. A structured questionnaire was used to interview 549 married pastoralist women who were selected by multistage sampling technique. The data were analyzed by SPSS - 21 software, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictors of modern contraceptive use at (P-value <0.05), and odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to assess the strength of associations between variables.ResultsThe current modern contraceptive method use by married pastoralist women was (20.8%). Among the total users, (78.1%) use the injectable method. The common reasons for non-use of modern contraceptive methods includes: religious-opposition (55.9%), desire for more children (28.3%), fear of side effects (25.5%), and husband’s opposition (17.5%). Couple discussion (AOR = 4.63, 95%CI: 2.15, 9.98), perceived husband’s approval (AOR = 8.00, 95% CI: 3.52, 18.19), discussion with health extension worker (AOR = 5.99, 95% CI: 1.81, 19.85), and perceived cultural acceptability (AOR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.09, 4.03) were the independent predictors of modern contraceptive use by married pastoralist women in Bale eco-region.ConclusionThe study identified lower modern contraceptive method utilization by pastoralist women, and the majority of the contraceptive users rely on short- acting contraceptive methods. The uncomplimentary perceptions towards religious and cultural acceptability of modern contraceptive method were among the major reasons for lesser utilization of the methods. Family planning programs should be tailored to actively involve pastoralist women, husbands, and religious leaders in pastoralist communities.
Highlights
Women who live in remote rural areas encounter different challenges against contraception and often deny the use of modern contraceptive methods
(44.3%) of the women perceived that modern contraceptive is acceptable by the rest of the community members, (30.6%) of the interviewed women perceived that their husband do not oppose the use of modern contraceptive method and while great proportion (92.4%) of them perceived that the use of the modern contraceptive methods is not supported by religious leaders
The majority (62.4%) of the respondents believe that couple discussion is useful to make a joint decision regarding the number and spacing of children in a family; nearly (70%) of the pastoralist women never discussed the issue of family planning and pregnancy spacing with their husbands (Table 4)
Summary
Women who live in remote rural areas encounter different challenges against contraception and often deny the use of modern contraceptive methods. The predictors of modern contraceptive utilization by pastoralist women in the Bale eco-region could be specific and are not well known. This study aims to assess modern contraceptive utilization and its determinants among married pastoralist women in Bale eco-region, Oromia regional state, South East Ethiopia. TFR in Ethiopia is 4.2 children per women This puts Ethiopia among countries with the highest fertility rates in the world [1, 4, 5]. The country has a young population mainly due to the disproportionately high fertility rate among rural women who give birth to nearly three more children during their reproductive years than their urban counterparts [6, 7]
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