Background: An estimated 17% of married women in the developing world have an unmet need for contraception. Understanding the magnitude of unmet contraceptive need and the underlying reasons of this phenomenon will help to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.
Objective:To assess the extent of unmet need for family planning among women in the reproductive age group (i.e., 1549 years) in an area of urban health training center; to explore the common reasons for unmet need for family planning.
Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in field practice area of urban health training centre, an adopted area under the administrative control of a tertiary-care hospital. The study subjects consisted of all married women in the age group of 1549 years. Women who were divorced, widows, those who refused to participate, those who had undergone hysterectomy, and menopausal women were excluded from the study.
Result: Unmet need for family planning was present in 22.1% among all women under study; 13.9% women revealed unmet need for spacing and 8.2% women unmet need for limiting. A statistically significant association was found between literacy and type of family with unmet need (P < 0.05). Common reasons for unmet need were fear of side effects (34.9%), opposition from family (25.3%), and so on.
Conclusion: Unmet need is higher in younger women; therefore, family planning program should focus this age group and target illiterate people and urban slum areas. Family planning should emphasize communication and counseling to the women and explain all sorts of information about the side effects and other misconceptions about contraceptives.
Key words: Unmet need, family planning, contraception, married women, urban slum
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