Study of Unmet Need for Family Planning among Married Women of Reproductive Age in a District of Eastern Nepal

Abstract

Background: The unmet need for family planning in Nepal is 27.8 percent. The reasons for unmet need may be lack of information, lack of decision making power, limited resources, distance from service delivery point, poor, quality of care, traditional beliefs. Usually unintended pregnancies end in abortion which results in various complications. These complications are leading reasons in increasing high mortality rate which is 539 per 100,000 live births in Nepal. So, unmet need is of great challenge for family planning programme for reaching and serving millions of women. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive conducted in Rangeli VDC in Morang district among married women of reproductive age. The sample size was 1050. The district and VDC were selected purposively and the samples using random sampling method. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Data entry and tabulation was done in SPSS 10.0. The data was analyzed as per the study variables. Results: The study showed that about 24% of the married women had unmet need for family planning- 9% for spacing purposes and 15% for limiting births. The current contraceptive prevalence rate among married women was 50%. Unmet need for spacing is highest among younger women while the unmet need for limiting childbearing is higher among older women. Majority of women with unmet need for family planning were Hindu by religion (99% and 94% for spacing and limiting respectively). Unmet need is lower among women's husband with at least a SLC+ than among less educated women's husband. Unmet need in nuclear type of family was highest (51%). About 80% of the women having unmet need had low socio-economic status. Conclusions: For family planning programs, making contraception more available has been key to raising contraceptive prevalence. Keywords: family planning; married women of reproductive age; unmet need.