Background: To reduce maternal and infant mortality, postnatal care and contraception services have to be provided at the home and community levels, institutions where delivery takes place, and again at home after discharge from the facility.
Objective: (1) To determine the prevalence of contraceptive usage among women who delivered in the last 636 months; (2) to determine the coverage of postnatal checkup among those women; and (3) to find the association between postnatal coverage and postpartum contraceptive usage.
Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken in the Bhadravati Taluk of Shimoga district, Karnataka, India. Study was conducted over 3 months from July to September 2013. By cluster sampling technique, 210 mothers who had delivered in the last 636 months were included in the study. House-to-house visit was done, and data were collected using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire after taking an informed consent.
Result: Of 210 deliveries, 58.5% were conducted in government institutions; LSCS was performed in 80 (38.3%). Only 44.5% had three or more postnatal checkups. In the study population, 35.2% underwent tubectomy, 0% vasectomy, and 15.3% were already pregnant at the time of interview. In the rest of sample, spacing methods were used such as Copper T (16.4%), OCPs (7.7%), and condom (4.8%), and 9.6% had lactational amenorrhea; 67.6% of women had unmet need for contraception, and 61.1 % of live births occurred within 30 months from the previous live birth.
Conclusion: Spacing methods of contraception and postnatal care are low in the study population.
Key words: Contraceptive usage, postnatal checkup, unmet need, cluster sampling, Shimoga
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