Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Contraceptive Methods of Family Planning in an Urban Slum Community of Mumbai

Objective : 1) To find out which type of contraceptive methods were practiced before the present pregnancy. 2) What were the reasons for discontinuation of contraceptive methods in case of acceptors? 3) What are the reasons for not accepting contraceptive methods? 4) What is the relation between contraceptive method acceptors and non-acceptors and birth order? 5) What is the role of birth order on the outcome of pregnancy? Study design : Retrospective and, Prospective, Observational, Community based study. Setting : An urban slum community Sahaji Nagar, situated in the outskirts of Mumbai. Study Population : 282 pregnant women selected from the community and followed up after delivery. Study variable : Acceptors and non-acceptors of contraceptive methods, type and knowledge of family planning among acceptors, reason for discontinuation in acceptors, reason for nonacceptance of contraceptive methods, family planning and birth order, birth order and outcome of pregnancy, spacing between two pregnancy and outcome of pregnancy. Outcome variable: Knowledge, attitude and practices of contraceptive methods, low birth weight babies related to birth order and spacing. Statistical analysis : SPSS, chi square test, test of regression. Results : Acceptors of family planning methods is 21.4% as against non-acceptors is 78.6%. Among acceptors 44.5% were using OCPs. Among acceptors the most common source of information were from the health personals i.e. doctors, nurses and health workers, 53.7% together. Reason for discontinuation of family planning in acceptors and in non-acceptors is no male child, 61.1% and 46% respectively. Among non-acceptors 37.4% were birth order 2nd while among acceptors were mostly from 2nd and 3rd order. 114 women delivered low birth weight newborns, while 138 women delivered normal birth weight newborns. Hence the percentage of low birth weight newborns in the present study was found out to be 45.2%. 58 i.e. 23% of the women are primigravida, whereas 42.1%, 23%, 9.5% and 2.4% are of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th order respectively. 37.9% and 37.7% of the women of 1st and 2nd order, gave birth to low birth weight babies which is significantly less as compared to 51.7%, 75% and 67% of 3rd, 4th and 5th order respectively. Spacing less than 2 yrs, 76.5% gave birth to low birth weight babies. social development. The world's population reached six billion on 12th Oct 1999, having doubled since 1960 with more than one billion young people entering the reproductive age group.1 India has a population of one billion on May 2000. It is the second largest country *Associate Professor, Dept. of PSM, Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, New Mumbai.. Introduction Population explosion is the greatest obstacle to the country's economical and