Contraceptive use and acceptability of the proposed three babies’ policy among women of reproductive age at Bibiani Anhwiaso Bekwai municipality

Background Contraceptives are used in family planning (FP) to space birth, limit birth and prevent unwanted pregnancies as well as reducing the rate of abortion. For the purpose of this study, contraceptives are categorized into modern and traditional methods. The aim of this study was to assess the proportion, enablers, and challenges of modern contraceptive uptake and determine the acceptability of the proposed three babies’ policy among reproductive women in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai municipality Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was adopted for this study in order to assess contraceptive usage and the acceptance of the three babies’ policy in recent times. The study adopted a quantitative approach in addressing the set objectives. The study population included reproductive women between the ages of 15 to 49 years who have a history of past or present pregnancy in Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai municipality (BABM). A sample size of 350 was deduced using Cochran (1977) and a convenient sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data obtained using a structured questionnaire was organized and entered into STATA 14 software for analysis. Results The study found knowledge of the availability of contraception to be high (98.3%) as well as the proportion of ever users (92.3%) of modern contraceptive uptake among women of reproductive age in the municipality. Furthermore, majority of the respondents (92.3%) agreed to the fact that using contraceptives is affordable and effective in limiting birth, effective in birth spacing as well as preventing unwanted pregnancies. Meanwhile, proportion of current modern contraceptive users (35.1%) dropped drastically as compared to that of ever users (92.3%). There was an association between the proportion of current use of contraceptives and viii some demographic characteristics such as marital status, religion, and current pregnancy with a P-value of 0.030, 0.001 and 0.001 respectively. However, among those not using modern form of contraception, majority (62.1%) had resorted to traditional method of contraception whiles 31.7% have deciding to practise no contraception at all. Factors that were identified to significantly affect contraceptive uptake within the Municipality were; myths about contraception (98.6%), side effect (92.0%), lack of privacy at service delivery points (73.4%), lack of support from partners (64.9%), friends (64.9%) and family members (64.5). Nevertheless, with respect to the acceptability of the three live birth policy by the Ghana population council, majority (86.6%) knew of the proposal and only 28.3% agrees to the proposal whiles majority (71.7%) disagrees with mean (± S.D) number of children they wish to have in lifetime as 3.9(±0.81). Reasons for disagreement include: help in occupation (32.3), against family decisions (26.3%), need for more than three children (18.7%), religious believes (7.2%) and having enough money to care for more than three children (15.5%). Furthermore, there was association between acceptability of three baby policy and some socio-demographic characteristics which include religion, number of children one has, and ever use of contraceptives with a p-value of 0.001, 0.001 and 0.012 respectively. Conclusion Myths about modern contraceptives is very common (98.6%) at BABM and have a significant effect on women’s’ choice and use of various modern contraceptive methods (35.1%). In addition, the low proportion of current contraceptive use (35.1%) coupled with 71.7% who disagrees with the three babies’ policy will affect the NPC targeted TFR of 3.0 by the year 2020.

Source: KNUST