Knowledge, attitude and practice of contraception among the postnatal women in a tertiary care hospital in a rural area in Southern Karnataka, India

Background: Contraceptive advice is a component of preventive health care. It is necessary to stabilize the population and to conserve the natural resources for the future generations. An ideal contraceptive should suit an individual’s personal, social, and medical characteristics and requirements. Socio-economic factors and education are few of the factors that play important roles in the acceptance of family planning.Methods: A cross-sectional study regarding knowledge, attitude and practices of family planning was conducted in a tertiary care centre. The postnatal women were interviewed using a pretested, semi structured Performa during a fixed study period. The performa included details like socio demographic features, questions related to knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding contraceptive use.Results: Results revealed poor good knowledge amongst females, but the knowledge was brought to practice in only 32% females mainly due to lack of knowledge and preference for male babies.Conclusions: Family planning methods including male sterilization should be provided to all the couples and basic quality of education is to be raised