family planning practice by patterns of marriage in the north of iran

background: the fertility experience in iran suggests that the family planning programs had an effective role in the fertility reduction. this study aimed to specify patterns of marriage in iran and especially in a northern city of iran and to investigate the association between patterns of marriage and contraceptive use before first pregnancy and current contraceptive use. methods: in this cross-sectional study, following the implementation of an expert panel in order to investigate marriage patterns, 880 women aged 15-49 yr old, were selected by multistage cluster sampling and completed the “reproductive practices” questionnaire in babol city, northern iran, in 2013. the data were analyzed using ibm spss ver.16 and descriptive and analytical parameters. results: there are three patterns of marriage in the northern part of iran: traditional, mixed and modern marriage and between different patterns there is no statistically significant difference in the contraceptive use. conclusion: according to the lack of significant relationship between patterns of marriage and the contraceptives use, which is one of the proximate determinants of fertility, the policy makers should pay attention to other determinants of fertility in order to manage the problems and implications of population decline in the country.