Family Planning Awareness and Usage among Women: Implication for Family Life Education

Aim: To examine family planning awareness and usage among women in Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State and its implication for family life education. Study Design: The study adopted descriptive design.

Methodology: A total of 200 women took part in the study and the purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. Semi structured and self administered questionnaire was used to obtain the data on awareness and usage of family planning methods as well as the strategies for improvement of family planning usage. The data obtained were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation. For a decision to be taken on each item statement in section D, any item with a mean of 2.5 and above was regarded as Agree while below 2.5 was regarded as Disagree. Findings from the study showed that majority of the women, 88(44%) were literate of about secondary education level, there was a high level awareness, 197(98.5%) have heard about family planning. 182(91%) are aware that family planning is used for child spacing while 132(66%) are aware that family planning help to prolong the life of mothers. The respondents utilize condoms 101(50.5%), use of pills 98(49%) prolonged breast feeding 88(44%), withdrawal method 90(45%), and injectables 51(25.5%) as against Scalping (0%), vasectomy (0%) and Avoidance of sexual intercourse 14(7%). The results also shows that 9 of the suggested strategies for improvement of usage were above mean of 3.00 indicating they are therefore accepted as strategies required for improvement of family planning usage among women. It was therefore recommended that the teaching of family life education as a school subject in secondary schools should be highly enforced by the ministry of education.