1.1 Introduction
Family planning is the process of controlling the number of children wanted in a marriage using contraceptive method, often known as birth control measure. Jeoffery (2004) also support the view that family planning is a means by which individual or couples space the interval of child birth based on mutual agreement between the husband and wife in order to have children they can conveniently care or adequately cater for. The focus of this report is to understand the Determinants to Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age context in Northern Nigeria through a literature review. It will also assess changes in modern contraceptive use in Enugu States using household survey and facility-level data, and contextualize the quantitative findings with a qualitative study.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Family planning is not new in the society; it has been well established in developed countries that those under developed countries could not recognize that they are practicing family planning. It was such in the area of study that when a woman put to bed or deliver a baby she is sent to her mother to nurse the baby for one or two years. The period of stay with her mother was meant to breast feed the baby, after which she then return to her husband. This way natural child spacing was taking place without relishing it. However, family planning started in Nigeria because of the obvious problems of brutality means (violent) of born and unborn children. These reasons were based on child jumping that is a child that is unwanted can be dump into the street, gutter, mot, some are found in front of orphanage, bush part and to public toilet. In 1954, Adeniyi Jones established the first family planning centre in Nigeria she continue without support until 1969 when pathfinder provide fund to sustain the programme. Fortunately for her in 1984 the family planning centre of Nigeria (FCN) was further organized for woman for better services. This include provision of family planning methods to improve maternal mortality and those with health risk 1989, president Ibrahim Babagida limited the number of children to 4 (four) per parent or couple, this programme was very good but could not be sustained because of poor service and management.
In the word of Gribbe, J. (2008) cited in Mabel Oshomah work he opine that “family planning can be better explained as being a situation where people have children by choice and not by change”, to him the happiness of the family squarely depend on the number of children a family has to cater for.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) (2002) conceptive is a drug or device used to prevent woman from getting pregnant, this can sometimes be called birth control according to (FPA) Family Planning Association. It is discussed as a special device that prevents fertilization of egg in the ovum by special device used to limit reproduction, which provide a safe and effective way to regulate fertility of the womb. Family is a unit that comprises of man, wife and children here the man is the head of the family or home he plan and place resources in strategic areas that requires development in the home. If the size of the family determines the happiness of the family according to Gribble .J. (2008), then the male take viable decision as it may affect6 the health of the family and also look forward to having a family he can carter for. Therefore, he has a role to play in family planning as no man would prefer spending his income on sickness or hospital and feeding of children, without proper education, entertainment, proper nutrition, home that will be suitable and comfortable for the family.
In Mathusian easy on population he opined that population increase in arithmetic progression while food increases in geometric progression. This place a lot of responsibility on family life, He further explained that if population continue to increase it might possible lead to food shortage. Rosen and Conly (1998) opined that “we see the need through family planning to prevent the health risk of frequent child birth and death associated with pregnancy and child birth to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted disease (STD) including HIV/AIDS. Since the call by Gen. Ibrahim Babagida to reduce Nigeria population ratio and to reduce poverty rate, inflation and unemployment, it therefore becomes the need of the man to rebrand, the structure and to plan or position every resources available to achieve maximum living standard of living, by reducing the number of children by means of birth control fertility (FPN, 1962). This he can achieve by means of using male contraceptives, female contraceptive, financing, advising and also to join the government to promote the use of contraceptive in Nigeria and the world at large.
Therefore, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Determinants to Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age.
1.3 Statement of Problems
In the study, the researcher postulated the following research problem or identified the following problems;
- Women is often blame for the size of the family when the number of child is high.
- Women often complain of lack of support from their spouse or husband.
- Women do not relate the issues of contraceptive or family planning to spouse or husband until its result in an unwanted pregnancy.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to determine the Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the role of male in family planning
- To find out reasons poor application of contraceptive (family planning) method in the area of study.
- To Proffer solution or recommendation that will further improve on the existing use of contraceptive method and to further open the eyes of the male folk in full participation in family planning.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Do husband provide the necessary support for their woman’s contraceptive or family planning?
- If the man is the head of the family and he is to get the woman pregnant. Then why is women often blamed of the high number of children in family?
- Apart from advising the man to adopt the use of condom and withdrawal method during sexual intercourse. Did the woman also advocate for other safe method of family planning and contraceptive?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
H0: There is no significant impact in determining the Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age
H1: There is significant impact in determining the Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age
1.7 Significance of Study
This study shall bring about recommendations that will serve as eye opener to the male folk in area of lacking active part or participation in family planning by bringing out the need for me to encourage their wife use of family planning method financial emotional, psychologically and emotionally.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the determinants to Family Planning Choices among Women of Reproductive Age in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Fertility: This is the number of birth per thousand by women.
STD: Sexually transmitted disease.
AIDS: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
HIV: Human immune virus
Population: Is the number of people living in a given country.
Welfare: Is a condition of having good health, comfortable living and working condition.
Withdrawal: This is the pull back of the penis from the vagina before ejaculation.
