Postpartum Family Planning Utilization among Mothers attending Maternal and Child Health Clinic of Tertiary Level Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The postpartum period is one of the critical phases in terms of initiation of Family Planning. Postpartum family planning can save mothers’ and babies’ lives by preventing more than one-third of maternal deaths and 1 in 10 deaths among babies. The prevalence of postpartum family planning utilization is low in our Nepal.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the MCH clinic of Rapti Academy of Health science after obtaining ethical approval from the Nepal Health Research council (NHRC). The objective of study was to find out the prevalence of postpartum family planning utilization. The convenience sampling method was used to collect data from 103 mothers having children from 6 weeks to 1year by using a self-structured interview schedule after pretesting. The collected data was analyzed using discriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: Less than half of the respondents (46.6%) received family planning counseling and postpartum family planning utilization was only 27.2%. The commonly used current postpartum family planning methods were a condom(39.3%) and depo (32.1%). Age of child, resumption of mensuration, resumption of sex, counseling on family planning method, and previous use of family planning were associated with postpartum family planning method with p value less than 0.05.

Conclusion: The prevalence of postpartum family planning utilization is low in Nepal. The counseling regarding postpartum family planning methods during the Antenatal, delivery, and postnatal periods should be improved to increase the use of family planning.