Knowledge and practice of contraception among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic in Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

BACKGROUND Preconception, prenatal and postnatal care forms a continuum. Family planning is one of the important aspects of the spectrum. Contraceptive options are available but the uptake has been poor. Ante natal clinic attendees represent a major target population for well designed /appropriate post partum contraceptive counseling and care. OBJECTIVES The study examined the sociodemographic data of antenatal clinic attendees at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), their knowledge about contraceptive methods, previous contraceptive practice and anticipated pattern of post partum contraceptive uptake. METHOD A Semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 151 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic in LUTH to collect data on their sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of family planning methods, pre-pregnancy contraceptive use and their anticipated post-partum contraceptive choices. RESULTS The mean age of the women was 29.9 years and the mean Parity was 1.1. Majority (90.7%) of the women were married. Ten women (6.6%) felt that they had poor knowledge about contraception while the rest had fair to excellent knowledge. The prevalence of contraceptive use before current pregnancy was 57.6% and the male condom was the method used in 56 cases (64.4%). Their major (54%) source of contraceptive commodity was the chemist/pharmacy. Sixty (69%) women stopped using contraceptive because they wanted to get pregnant. Sixty-eight (45.0%) women planned to use contraceptives after delivery and the male condom (55.9%) was the most preferred method of post-partum contraception. There is no statistical association between age, religion, parity and educational attainment and desire for post-partum contraception. CONCLUSION Antenatal women in LUTH appeared quite knowledgeable about contraception but majority had no plan for contraceptive use post delivery. Information dissemination about benefits of child spacing and provision of incentives for easy uptake of post partum contraception would help to correct this imbalance.