Family planning awareness and practices among women attending tertiary care hospital at Faisalabad, Pakistan

Objective: To investigate the family planning awareness and practices among women attending tertiary care hospital at Faisalabad, Pakistan. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at Madina Teaching Hospital Faisalabad, Pakistan. Five hundred women of reproductive age (19-40 years) were included in this survey, to check their knowledge and practices regarding contraceptives use. Results: The results of the study showed that 92% of the women had contraceptive knowledge but practicing women were 39.4% only. Almost 67% women were belonged to rural area and 33% to urban area. Regarding use of contraception, 39.4% were using one of the contraceptive method, 33% were intending to use and 28% did not want to use any method. The most common method used for contraception was condom (male partner) 36%, followed by contraceptive pills (23%) and female sterlization (19%). About 87% of the women had no constraints in using contraceptive method. Only 5.8% did not want to use because of religious constraints. The most common fear regarding use of contraceptive method was weight gain (13%). Conclusion: There was wide gap in knowledge and practice of contraceptive use. The three common methods of contraception were condom, contraceptive pills, and female sterilization respectively. Because of low literacy rate females had some fear, myths or misconceptions which need to be clarified