CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to Study
Family planning is widely acknowledged as an important intervention towards achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four (4) and five (5) as it has proven to reduce maternal and child mortality. Family planning can prevent unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Some family planning methods such as condom usage can protect individuals from Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS. Family planning has also been found to promote gender equality as well as promote educational and economic empowerment for women. Despite the enormous benefits of family planning services, the uptake of the service still remains low in Sub-Saharan Africa. This has resulted into high rates of unwanted pregnancies, unplanned deliveries, unsafe abortions and maternal mortalities in Sub-Saharan Africa of which Nigeria is no exception. The low uptake of family planning is largely blamed on many factors. It has been observed that the awareness of the availability of family planning services has a great influence on the uptake of family planning services. Additionally, even though some women are aware of the availability of family planning services, they are not properly informed about the various forms of family planning methods and how they work. Some of the women who went for family planning services were not adequately counselled on the side effects of some of the family planning methods. For example, in Uganda, some women stopped using contraceptives after they experienced what they perceived were side effects of the contraceptives.
Although most people are aware of the benefits of family planning services, they complained that it was difficult to access family planning services as such services were provided by health facilities that were far from their homes. In addition, religious inclination has been noted to be a major constrain to the uptake of family planning services in Africa. Also, some individuals perceived that family planning services were meant for only married couples whilst others fear that they will become sexually promiscuous if they go for family planning services once they cannot become pregnant. In Nigeria, some efforts have been made by the government of Nigeria and non-governmental organizations through the implementation of various programmes to improve the coverage of family planning services in the country. Although some successes have been chucked in the area of awareness of family planning services in the country, the unmet need for family planning still remains high. The Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) observed that a large number of women have an unmet need for family planning as the acceptor rate for family planning services remains low.