Viewpoints and Practices of Married Couples on Women’s Fertility Control in Tiro Afeta Woreda, Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia.

Abstract

Rapid population growth has been a serious problem in developing countries. This creates shortage of cultivated land, unemployment, and speed up poverty. Ethiopia is one of the countries which have faced this problem. Now a day, Ethiopia has a total fertility rate of 4.6 children per women. Tiro Afeta district’s current total fertility rate is 4.8 children per women, a bit higher than the national value. Since the coming to power of the present government, many attempts have been made to reduce fertility rate by introducing the Family Planning and Contraception services. The study, therefore, was intended to know the view points and practices of married couples on women’s fertility control and how that is contributing to the usage of contraception in the district. Sixteen (16) interviews with married couples (8 each sex), 8 interviews with health service providers and 6 focus group discussions (three for husbands and thee for wives) in which 24 males and 23 females participants were carried out. Selection of key informants was purposive with the aim of obtaining knowledgeable, experienced and expressive individuals. This study site was chosen because it has higher fertility rate of 4.8 children per women that is greater than the national one. The study design of this research is phenomenological. Unstructured interview guides were used for the interviews. The structuration theory was used in explaining the findings of the study. The finding of the study reveals that there are six identified major obstacles hindering women from using fertility control. These include: husband’s opposition to the use of the method, fear of side effects, misinformation, influence of religion, significance of child sex composition, gender norms and the importance of high fertility culture. The main factors contributing to this is less education on modern contraceptive methods and the inability of women to negotiate their husbands in order to adopt the methods effectively. Education was seen as the major factor to be considered in improving contraceptive usage in the district. The researcher recommends that contraceptive usage will improve if men are actively involved in family planning.