Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: July-September | Volume: 6 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 388-394
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijshr.20210764
Family Planning: Popular Methods and Their Effects
Yamini Bhatt1, Mukta Singh2
1Department of Foods and Nutrition, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar,India-263145
2Home Science Department, Women's College, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P., India -221005
Corresponding Author: Yamini Bhatt
ABSTRACT
The number of children directly affects the health and nutritional status of mother. For a healthy child, the mother should be healthy and this could be possible with planned pregnancies or avoiding unwanted pregnancies by use of family planning methods. The present study was undertaken to investigate the methods of family planning used and their effect on the health of a woman.
The study was carried out in the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India. The study was cross-sectional and comprised of 220 married women aged 25-40 years, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. The respondents were randomly selected, with the exclusion criteria for unmarried, widow, divorcee women, or those who were not living with their husbands.
The results showed that the respondents were aware of the family planning concept. The best source of information regarding family planning was media (36.36%); and the maximum of them preferred the permanent method (40.45%) as the method of contraception. Only a few of them (38.64%) were aware of government policies and plans related to family planning. 26.37% of respondents felt that they were having health problems by using contraceptive methods. The health problems were observed among the respondents using Intra-Uterine Devices (58.49%) and oral contraceptive pills (41.51%).
Age and nutritional status of the mother during conception both contribute to the health and nutritional status of the child. Government should establish policies related to exposure of married couples towards family planning methods along with easy access to family planning methods especially for the lower class people. Also, more in-depth study of the use and awareness of family planning methods should be done as it is essential for the well-being of the mother, child, and family and even society as a whole.
Keywords: Family planning; Family planning methods; Contraception; Intra-uterine devices; Contraceptive Pills