use of contraception among women with handicapped child

ABSTRACT

This work was carried out to study knowledge, attitudes and practices of family planning among women with handicapped child. The study included 215 women who were randomly selected from Maternal and Child Health Centers [MCH] and an institute for mentally retarded children. An interview format was used to collect data. The collected data included the socio demographic data, biological characters of women and the nature, severity of disabilities among handicapped children. Also, inquired about the usage of contraception among studied women. The study showed a defect in knowledge about family planning among studied women. Studying the attitudes of all women reflected a gap between family planning ideals and actual performance. The use of contraception was 63.79% among women with normal children compared to 77.78% among those with handicapped child. The usage of contraception among women with handicapped child varied according to the type of disabilities with the highest use recorded among women with mentally retarded children and those with muscloskeletal disabilities. Also, the use was parallel to the birth order of the handicapped child.The highest recorded reasons in the decision not to use contraception rather than husband traveling were the desire to have another child to compensate for handicapped one. On the other hand some women with handicapped child planned the contraceptive method as the cause for having handicapped child. It was recommended to integrate health education in family planning with every health activity in Maternal and Child Health Centers with increasing the number and training of family planning personnel