Knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among women attending a tertiary care hospital in India

It’s a cross sectional observational study conducted in outpatient clinic of OBG, SDMCMS&H, Dharwad between July-December 2012. 200 married women between 20-45 yrs were interviewed with predesigned questionnaire. Effort was made to identify reasons for wide gap between knowledge and practice of contraception. All women knew atleast one method of contraception but 48% were using some sort of contraception. Most known method was female sterilization, least known were injectables and male sterilization. Common method chosen was female sterilization (70.8%). None adopted male sterilization. Reasons for not using contraception were desire to have child (25%), desire for boys (13.4%), worried about side effect (16.3%), opposition from family members (11.5%), felt pregnancy was naturally spaced (11.5%), no specific reasons (10.5%), couldn’t avail contraceptive facilities (5.7%), inconvenient to use (5.7%). Educational and motivational activities from doctors and health workers is needed to promote the use of contraception. [Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol 2013; 2(2.000): 172-176]