Knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception: a study from rural tertiary health care centre

Background: Realizing the ill effects of increasing population, India was the first country to have started a state sponsored Family Planning Programme, long back in 1952; India is the second most populous country of the world only after China. To attain the required targets India needs nationwide surveys to assess the practices of contraception especially in poor performing states in order to utilize the available resources according to local needs. Methods: Hospital based, cross-sectional survey conducted amongst the women of post natal ward of a referral hospital mainly catering rural population. Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey of family planning was conducted. Results: A total of 4221 subjects were interviewed.58% of these women were aware of contraceptive methods, mostly Permanent followed by IUCD, Condom, least of oral pills. Conclusions: Spacing methods are less known amongst rural women while the use is even lower which calls for the further strengthening of existing awareness programmes.