Role of men in fertility and family planning in a peri-urban community in Punjab, India.

ABSTRACT

Background: It is a well-documented fact that men’s general knowledge and attitudes concerning the ideal family size, sex preference of children, ideal spacing between child births and contraceptive method use greatly influence women’s preferences and opinions. However, fertility and family planning research and programmes have ignored men’s role in the past, focussing their attention on women’s attitudes and behaviours in matters concerning reproduction. Aims & Objective: To assess men’s attitude towards family planning & to compare in which ways and to what extent the men’s attitude differs from their wives and its implications for future family planning programs. Material and Methods: A cross sectional survey was carried out in 305 eligible couples in Shahid Bhagat Singh Colony of Rajpura, Punjab. Information pertaining to the couple’s socio-demographic data, fertility intentions & attitude towards contraception was collected. Results: It was observed that among the women whose spouse approved of their contraceptive usage, 41.3% of the women were using contraceptives and 58.7% were not using any contraceptive. 79.7% of the women who had frequent (more often) discussions with their partners were currently using contraceptives and 20.3% did not use any form of contraceptives despite frequent discussions. As regards perception of ideal family size it was observed that in 68.7% (95 % CI 63.2 – 74.2%) of cases there was agreement between husband and wife about the number of children that they should ideally have. Conclusion: Men’s fertility intentions, reproductive preferences and their attitude towards family planning seem to influence the fertility behaviour of their wives and their attitude towards the use of contraceptives. Therefore an attempt to promote reproductive health through increasing use of contraceptives needs to be made and family planning programmes need to target men specifically at all levels of the programme.