The Effect of Changing Policies to Increase the Birth Rate on Reproductive Health Rate over a Twelve-Year Period in Islamshahr

Introduction: In recent years, population growth, birth rate promotion and reproductive health policies have been the main approach of population control programs. In this study, the researcher was going to investigate and got a close look to this important issue in the city of Islamshahr. The comparative study of prophylactic methods and their prevalence was conducted among fertile women in 2004 and 2016 to examine how their approach change following the changes in national policy has affected on reproductive health.Materials and Methods: Two thousand reproductive-age women who reside in Islamshahr voluntarily and confidential participated using a questionnaire. All data were analyzed using SPSS software.Results: The findings indicated that despite the decrease in contraceptive use in 2016 compared to 2004 (from 90.8% to 42%), the level of public awareness has been increased about their benefits and reproductive health So that we observed an increased awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and ways to fight them (from 27% to 56%). A decline in illegal abortion rate (from 60% to 22%) and an increase in the knowledge of appropriate lactation methods (from 25.8% to 40%) observed during the study period. Natural methods had the highest prevalence among contraceptive methods at both times of the survey. The knowledge of women about the proper methods for early marriage (from 25.3 to 11%) and emergencies showed a decrease (from 12.2% to 5.6%)