The Unmet Family Planning Needs: Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Program

Abstract

Introduction: Family planning is a method of thinking and a life style which is chosen voluntarily and according to the attitudes and responsible determination of the couples in order to promote hygiene and convenience of the family. A pre-experimental study was done on existing knowledge deficit regarding use of family planning methods among the women of eligible couples in selected Community Health Centre, Sunder Nagri under St. Stephen’s Hospital, Delhi, with objectives to assess the knowledge of women of eligible couples regarding the use of family planning methods, to plan and implement appropriate interventions to solve and reduce the problem, to assess the effectiveness of planned teaching program and amount of knowledge gained after the intervention and to motivate the women of eligible couples to adopt small family norms. A semi-structured questionnaire tool was developed with the help of experts. The data collection tool selected for study was a structured interview schedule. The study was done on 30 women of reproductive age group, and purposive sampling method was used. Pre-test post-test was done. The study findings revealed that women in areas of Sunder Nagri had incomplete knowledge about the concept of family planning. The results showed that the concept of family planning was not well understood by women as only 33.3% women were aware of how much time gap is required for abortion, 56.6% were aware of time period of starting of oral contraceptive after lactation, only 26.6% were familiar with emergency contraceptive pills, 36.6% had knowledge on maximum durability CuT availability, only 16.6% were having clear concept on male sterilization; others were having myths, 40% were aware of side effects of CuT, 40% were aware of method of protection against STDs, 30% were aware of starting of oral pills on which day of cycle, 16.6% were knowing about administration of emergency contraceptive within 72 hours, 33.3% were aware about CuT replacement duration, 53.3% had knowledge on how to check CuT in place or not, 56.6% were aware of tubectomy, only 6.6% were aware of LAC in contraception, 46.6% knew about ideal gap which should be kept between two children, only 16.6% were aware of time taken for effectiveness after vasectomy, very few had misconception about contraceptive pills. The analysis was done using SPSS version 21 and T-test showed that there was an increase in knowledge of women after conducting the health teaching program, as the p-value was less than 0.005 level of significance