Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation“The Home of God-Loving and Globally Competent

Individuals”Martin P. Posadas Avenue, San Carlos City, Pangasinan, 2420, Philippines

GRADUATE SCHOOLDEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

COURSE: SOCIO-CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH Research paper

Topic: Evaluation Of Family Planning Program In 15-49 Years Old Women Living in Barangay Lucban, San

Carlos City,Presented by:

BANKWHOT NUHU, HARUNA. ID: 15-05694-1571

July, 2016.

Introduction Overview of Barangay Lucban; Barangay Lucban is one of the serene places in the San

Carlos City, Pangasinan. The people are warm, friendly and live a remotely quiet life. The street is characterized by a number of low income

earners who own small shops consisting of items like snacks, soft drinks, detergents, etc.

A few eateries can also be found there. The young ones hang around on evenings to play basket

ball and chat with friends while the older ones sit in small groups.

A variable mixture of well educated and low to average educated persons live in the barangay while majority of the population live modest lives.

Introduction cont.d The Philippines is an archipelago nation comprising 7107 islands

divided among three island groups (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) located in south-east Asia (WHO report).

It has a relatively stable birth and death rate with the population increasing steadily by 2% for the past decade, one of the highest in Asia. (health of adolescent, WHO)

The continued growth of world’s population has become an urgent global problem. Most of these growths are occurring in developing countries where fertility rates are very high (Bandura et al., 2002).

High fertility rates has contributed to the rapid population growth and its negative consequences such as poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, food insecurity, low quality of health and poor standard of living, hence the need for family planning cannot be overemphasized as an important regimen.

Family Planning (FP) Family planning (FP) implies the ability of individuals and

couples to participate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their birth.

Family planning is a programme to regulate the number and spacing of children through the practice of contraception or other methods of birth control (Houghton et al., 2004).

Family planning through contraception tries to achieve two objectives; firstly, to have only the desired number of children and secondly, to have these children by proper spacing of pregnancy (Babrals, Malik SL, 2004).

From the above, family planning can be defined as the practice of controlling family size by birth spacing.

Philippine family planning program PFPP (DOH)

Intended audience: men and women of reproductive age (15-49yrs) including adolescents.

Vision: empower men and women living healthy, productive and fulfilling lives and exercising the right to regulate their own fertility through legally and acceptable family planning services

Mission: the DOH in partnership with LGUs, NGOs, the private sectors and communities ensures the availability of FP information and services to men and women who need them

Program goals; to provide universal access to FP information, education and services whenever and wherever these are needed.

Objectives(general); to help couples, individuals achieve their desired family size within the context of responsible parenthood and improve their reproductive health.

Significance of the study This evaluation study is useful to health

administrators at various levels for planning, implementation and assessment of reproductive health programs and services.

Data obtained from this study can also be utilized to identify needed targets for reproductive health programs and this is an important tool not only for planning but also for monitoring and evaluation of health programs in general.

Statistical data can be beneficial to researchers, academicians and government/ private health administrators for population studies.

Aims and objectives of the study

Assess the availment of family planning program.

Investigate the extent of implementation of the program.

Assess the extent of availment of the program in the barangay.

methodology The design used for this study was the qualitative research design. The subjects were 20 (n=20) women living in Lucban street, in San

Carlos City, Philippines.

The age bracket for subjects was 15-49 years for all females.

The sample for this qualitative study was constructed by purposive sampling of residents in barangay Lucban who were interviewed on non-scheduled terms voluntarily, based on a set of structured questions.

The structured questions used in the interview, as a checklist was the primary tool used in the data gathering relevant to the study. Numerical data obtained was described in tabulated format.

Data collection The participants were interviewed on family

planning knowledge-related terms as a means to ascertain the availment of the family planning program to the residents, the extent of implementation of the program as well as the extent of availment of the program within the community.

A little of demographic data was also asked in the process of the interview based on its relevance to the evaluation study.

Careful consideration was ensured in the course of the interview to questions deemed as private by the participants.

ResultsItems

 

Age group 

15-19 years old

20-24 years old

25 years and

above

NATotal

Knowledge on family planning program 2 5 8 5 20

Visited one or more family planning centres

recently2 5 7 6 20

Experienced or participated in family planning awareness campaign/training

3 5 9 3 20

Actively using family planning methods 3 7 4 6 20

Results cont.d From the table; it can be noted that most of the participants

have a fairly good knowledge of family planning program.

Adolescents of the age group 15-19 years show a considerable level of sexual activity as affirmed from the number of women who are actively using family planning methods .

It can also be deduced from the table that there are still some women who have no knowledge on FP program or utilized a FP centre before.

Discussion The impact of family planning in the Philippines has so far been effective in

the lives of both women and men of all age group in the community. The 2008 NDHS found that knowledge of contraceptive methods was high

among young women, with 96.3% of 15-19 year olds and 99.2% of 20-24 year olds having heard of any modern method of contraception (Ibid).

However, women in urban regions who are also likely to have attained higher levels of education have shown more positive long-term outcomes in the use of family planning for birth control than their counterparts in the rural areas.

Among all female adolescents aged 15-19 using contraceptive (3.1% of the total respondents), withdrawal was the common method(41.9%) followed by the pill, which was the most commonly used modern method (29%).

Among married adolescents aged 15-19, withdrawal was also the most commonly used method (9.8%) followed by the pill(8.6%)

The results shown in the table indicates that family planning program is quite available at the community level, however more still needs to be done as there are still a considerable number of women that are still not aware of the program, or even practice its methods.

Notable statistics from similar FP studies (NDHS 2008)

50.7% of married women used FP in 2008 Modern FP methods use reduced; 2003-2008 Poor women use some modern FP methods like pills, IUD,

injectables, more than rich women. But the modern method where they lag behind the most is in ligation. This is likely the result of access problems rather than preference.

Poor women have more (28%) unmet FP need than rich women Adolescent women have more (36%) unmet FP need compared

with oldest women. Women aged 15-19yrs have the highest increase in

fertility(birthrate) over time (from 1965-2008) Philippine women still use more traditional FP methods in recent

years compared to other neighboring countries like Thailand, Cambodia etc.

Using no FP or traditional method carries high risk of unintended pregnancy. Women at risk of this include; all women, fecund, sexually active, not intending to be pregnant.

Inadequate FP caused 54% of all pregnancies to be unintended in 2008

Maternal death, abortions and unplanned births and miscarriages(unintended pregnancies) will rapidly decline if all women use only modern family planning methods.

Conclusion

This study in addition to cited literature, implies that there will still be a steady decline in life births amongst women in urban areas whereas women in local or rural areas will continue to have more unplanned pregnancies.

This is basically due to fact that women in urban areas are likely to be more educated and exposed to family planning programs, methods and trainings.

hence more needs to be done by the government and private sectors to reach out to communities on a more consistent base to ensure that family planning practice becomes a regular but convenient lifestyle amongst women.

Barriers to FP No government supplies Weak family planning policies Catholic group opposition Contraception ban Concerns about effects/side-effects Misconceptions about fertility.

Women’s misconception about fertility

Infrequent sex is safe Some women are prone to pregnancy than others If you don’t enjoy sex, you will not get pregnant Standing up, jumping up and down, and douching

with water after sex can prevent pregnancy Uterine maneuver (hilot) can prevent pregnancy If one’s children are grown, one does not get

pregnant If one’s period is breastfeeding, one will not get

pregnant If one has irregular period, one will not get

pregnant

Why women fail to use family planning (%)

Health concerns 20.9%

Want to have as many children 15.5%

Fear of side effects 13.9%

Infrequent/or no sex9.8%

Infecund 9.8%

NDHS 2008 Table 5.15: Reason for not intending to use contraception in the future.

Recommendation In lieu of a proper implementation of the FP program the following

should be considered: Enforcement of policies and laws by government on maximum

number of children per unit family Adolescent education programs on sex, self esteem, skill

acquisition and peer influence should be frequent routine. Curfews for adolescents should be made by parents to keep their

wards from untold danger e.g. rape Religious clerics should be involved in government sponsored FP

programs. Routine monitoring, promotion and evaluation of FP programs

already established should be ensured by both government and private sectors.

Modern FP methods, its convenience and significance, should be well explained by FP administrators or trainers during counselling, campaigns or promotions.

References Likhaan, identifying barriers to accessing safe motherhood

services, unpub, 2009. Guttmacher Institute, Investing in women’s contraception use

in the philippines,2009. Junice L. D., training of medical educators on family planning,

2010 ppt. DOH.,The Philippine health statistics, 2013 Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey 2008.

Republic of the Philippines and Calverton, Maryland: National Statistics office and ICF Macro, 2009.

State of the world’s children 2009. United Nations Children’s Fund. (cited 22 September 2010) Available from: http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/statistics/tables.php

http://www.accelerated-personal-development.com/barriers-to-personal-growth.html

Thank you for good listening