Knowledge and Uptake of Immediate Post-partum Contraception among Nursing Mothers in Abakaliki, Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Good knowledge and uptake of immediate postpartum contraception reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy, abortion, maternal and child death, perinatal morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the knowledge and uptake of immediate postpartum contraception among nursing mothers at Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki. Materials and Methods: Consecutive sampling technique was used for subject selection. Pre-tested self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: The mean age of respondents was 30.2 ±7.8 years. Nearly 78.6% of the respondents had some information about immediate postpartum contraception, 65.5% knew the importance of postpartum contraception. Forty point three percent (40.3%) of the respondents had used immediate postpartum contraception in the past. Only 3.2% of the respondents had challenges with use of immediate postpartum contraception. Fear accounted for 5% of the challenges. Conclusions: Nursing mothers at the study area had good knowledge of immediate postpartum contraception. There was however a low uptake of immediate postpartum contraception among them.To achieve the desired family size and reduce population explosion at both the national and sub-national regions,there is need for awareness creation on the importance of immediate postpartum contraception.