Abstract:
Background: Millions of women worldwide who are sexually active, who would prefer to avoid becoming
pregnant, but are not using any contraception, these women are considered to have
an “unmet need” for Family Planning. The concept of “unmet need” points to 1 the gap
between some women's reproductive intensions and their contraceptive behaviour. Bridging
the gap can lead to a great success in the family planning programme and realization
of the dream of stable population.
Objectives: To assess the unmet need of family planning and the factors influencing the unmet
need among married women.
Materials and Methods:A descriptive survey was under taken among 280 married women selected using purposive
sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaire.
Results: About 41.1% of the total subjects had the unmet need for family planning in that
32.2% were having unmet need for spacing and 67.8% for limiting. Majority (55.7%)
were not using family planning because of fertility related reasons. The study revealed
that there was a significant association between unmet need and variables like age
and number of living children. There was a significant association between unmet need
and fertility related reasons.
Conclusion: Since the unmet need of family planning is existing, awareness of the public in relation
to family planning should be ongoing especially to the general public with lower level
of education.
Keywords:
Family planning - factors influencing unmet need
