Experiences of female adolescents attending community health centres regarding the use of contraceptives in Buffalo City Health District

Abstract

Family planning is a broad term that encompasses the provision of contraceptive methods to sexually active women or girls and includes fertility planning. Despite the widespread availability of knowledge about modern contraception, many young people do not use contraception or use it inconsistently and incorrectly. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of female adolescents attending community health centres regarding contraceptive usage. The study also intended to provide recommendations to the district health office and facility managers at community health centres regarding care and support of adolescents concerning their use of contraceptives. The study utilised a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research design. The target group comprised of female adolescents attending community health centres in Buffalo City Health District, for contraceptive and adolescentfriendly services. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select the community health centres in the study and the researcher used convenience sampling to select participants at each community health centre. The researcher used semi-structured interviews to interview the participants regarding their experiences of using contraceptives. Tesch’s thematic method of data analysis was used to analyse the data. The researcher adhered to all the ethical principles of the Belmont Report while conducting the study. The analysed data indicated the issue of access to contraceptives and their usage as a challenge to many female adolescents attending the community health centres in Buffalo City Municipality. Adolescents expressed a range of negative emotions regarding the consequences of not using contraceptives and some also complained about the side effects of using contraception. Some adolescents felt that nurses did not always provide them with quality care, while others experienced receiving patient-centred, holistic care from clinic nurses, as well as health education regarding contraceptive usage from nurses and life orientation teachers. However, female adolescents called for an increase in reproductive health education at clinics and hospitals. They also expressed the need for regular school involvement regarding the education of adolescents on the various aspects of contraceptive usage. Hence, it is hoped that the recommendations from this study will assist the DoH to better assist adolescent females with contraceptive usage