Perceptions and attitudes of a rural community to abortion in the Niger-delta region of Nigeria

To determine the perceptions and beliefs relating to unwanted pregnancy, family planning and abortion, and identify issues that can be leveraged to initiate positive attitudes towards family planning and abortion in the area. Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted in Amukpe, Delta State, Nigeria. A highly motivated and well-trained team versed in the local language and culture conducted the FGDs and IDIs. Therewas unanimity that unwanted pregnancies was quite common amongstwomen of reproductive age group and constitute a significant problemin the community.Abortion, particularly in the hands of quacks was amajor option to handling an unwanted pregnancy.Almost all agreed that their culture and religion abhors abortion, yetwidely practiced because of the odium associatedwith an unwanted pregnancy in the community. The knowledge of the Nigeria National abortion law even amongst the health workers and teachers was generally poor. The participants agreed that there were problems and complications (often severe) including death associatedwith abortion in the community. Itwas largely agreed that contraceptive knowledge and usage was poor. The reasons adduced for this include lack of knowledge, lack of spousal consent, socio-cultural taboos andmisconceptions, aswell as economic reasons. Itwas suggested that imbibing positive family values by parents in theirwards and government leveraging the socio-economic status of the communitywill go a long way to stemming the tide. Unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion and abortion complications are reported to be commonamongst women of reproductive age group inAmukpe community, whilst contraceptive awareness and usage is poor.Keywords: Perception and attitudes, rural community,Abortio

Factors associated with the knowledge, practice and perceptions of contraception in rural southern Nigeria

Background: Significant proportion of maternal deaths in Nigeria is due to complications of unsafe abortions, and these abortions are responses to unwanted pregnancies that could have been prevented by effective contraceptive programming. Despite intense programmatic efforts by the Nigerian government and various non-governmental agencies toreverse the trend, there has been little evidence to suggest a systematic improvement in these indicators. Methodology: A household random survey of 1,528 women aged between 15-49 years was undertaken at Amukpe community in Nigeria, to determine theirknowledge, practice and perceptions of contraception. Results: The results showed that 86.2% of the respondents had secondary or less level of education and 19.2% of the respondents were single parents. The level of contraceptive awareness was high (92.3%) and88% of the respondents became aware of contraception in the last 14 years. Friends/relatives (40.6%), followed by nurses (31.7%) and then doctors (17.3%) were the common sources of contraceptive awareness. The most  widely known contraceptive methods were injectables,condoms, POP and OCP. The specific knowledge of emergency contraception was poor. The factors associated with low contraceptive usage were poor level of training and ineffective conveyance of relevant information to clients by health personnel, low literacy levels,extremes of reproductive age and extremes of parity. Others were fear of side effects, lack of knowledge, and lack of spousal consent.Conclusion: Contraceptive usage remain poor despite high level of awareness. Effective educational and counseling interventions are likely to improve providers’ and consumers’ knowledge and subsequent uptakeof contraceptive usage