UTILIZATION OF LONG ACTING AND PERMANENT FAMILY PLANNING METHODS AMONG WOMENS VISITING FAMILY PLANNING CLINIC IN ARBA MINCH HOSPITAL.

Abstract

Background: maternal health improvement is dependent on availability and utilizations of reproductive health services including family planning. Family planning is assumed to prevent 187 million unintended pregnancies and nearly 60 million unplanned births. This study aimed to assess the utilization of long acting family planning methods in Arba Minch Hospital.

Methods: Health facility based cross-sectional was conducted in Arba Minch Town. The study included women of reproductive age who were visiting Arba Minch General hospital. Data was collected by interviewer administered questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software version 20.

Results: One hundred forty four (88.88%) of the respondents took FP methods during the study. From these women most 88(61.15%) of them took Depo-Provera. In this study utilization of long acting family planning methods was 22.9%.   The commonly used long acting methods were IUCD 5.55% and Implanon 17.3%.

Conclusion and Recommendations: utilization of long acting family planning methods in the study area was low. Increasing the awareness and resolving the perception of clients on wrong assumption need to be corrected through health education.

Key words: long acting methods, utilizations, reproductive health, Arba Minch, Ethiopia