A Study on the Factors Associated with Affecting Unmet Need for Family Planning among Married Women of Reproductive Age in Birendranagar Municipality of Surkhet District

Abstract

Background: Family planning services are designed to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality to enhance child survival and to bring about a balance in population growth and socio-economic development. This study aims to find extent of unmet need among the mother of reproductive age and seeks to find out the factors associated with unmet need of family planning in Birendranagar municipality of Surkhet district. Methods: It was a non-experimental descriptive study. Out of 12 wards of the Birendranagar municipality of Surkhet district, 3 wards were selected by applying lottery method. Out of 1420 households, 399 samples of married women of reproductive age were selected by systematic random sampling method. Results: The extent of unmet need among married women of reproductive age was 19 percent. Among them, 10.5 percent wished to use terminal method and the remaining for spacing method. Majority of the mothers belonged to the age group 20-29 years (43 percent), had 3 or more children (47 percent) and were illiterate (66 percent). The main reasons for unmet need were disapproval of husband (31 percent), rumors regarding contraceptive (26 percent), side effects (20 percent), no proper counseling (8 percent), time constraints (7 percent) and others including absence of husband (9 percent). Conclusions: Improving communication (interpersonal communication), women empowerment and gender equity programs focusing on women as well as men will reduce unmet need. Keywords: contraceptive device; data interpretation; family planning; female; fertility; human; sampling studies; statistical; unmet need.