ACCESS TO FAMILY PLANNING SERVICE BY WOMEN IN KIRA SUB-COUNTY, WAKISO DISTRICT.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The study was all about the accessibility of Family Planning Services by women in Kira Town Council, Wakiso District. This chapter presented the details of Background information to the study, Statement of the problem, Purpose of the study, Research Objectives, Research Questions, Scope of the study, Significance of the study, Limitation and Delimitation to the study.
1.2 Background to the study
According to the World Health organization-Department of Reproductive Health and research (WHO, 2007), There is a global concern about Reproductive Health Programmes/ Care (Family planning Services) for all women irrespective of their reproductive age and disability. It further suggests that Family planning remains unfinished.
According to MoH, (2009), Family Planning activities were started in the 1960’s by NGOs which were integrated into the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) program in 1984. Since then, it has been recognized as one of the priority interventions for the maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality as well as for addressing Adolescent pregnancies. Family Planning services are therefore available in most of the health facilities and are provided free of charge; even NGOs are accessing free contraceptives. Although promotion of Family Planning services in an official government policy is supported by government and donor resources, there is lack of National consensus to practice Family Planning. As a consequence, many contradictory arguments emerge from political and religious leaders and for that reason several Private Not-For-Profit (PNFP) facilities do not provide/promote use of modern Family Planning Services. Therefore, religious background and community health seeking behavior also limit service delivery. This is especially important given that the PNFP facilities owned by religious bodies represent only accessible source of health care for some population in the country.
According to Alcala (1995), in developing countries today, particularly in Africa, couples have concluded that it is in their best interest to plan and limit the number at birth. Unfortunately, in situation particularly in sub-sahara Africa, extreme poverty, profound inequalities between men and women, and early marriages, severely limit women’s ability to achieve their child bearing goals (Alcala, 1995). The further suggested that the gap frequently exist between the number of children, women they say they want to have and the number they have.
Uganda, like any other developing country has challenges in making Family Planning Services accessible by all women. (Uganda Service Provision Assessment – UPSA, 2007). Despite USPA’s struggle to make Family Planning services accessible by women, 6.9% of Ugandan women still have about 7 children average.
According to United Nations (1995) the government support for long term and permanent methods of Family Planning has been present since the time of introduction of services in Uganda. The feasibility of this government support through media and community based advocacy events has been limited.
According to UBOs (2009), It was reported that there was an alarming increase in population growth rate of about ( %) in Uganda by ( ). In Kira Town Council, there is a big population growth rate. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS, 2009) the population of Wakiso district was people and but today, it’s estimated to be about of people and the population growth rate to make matters worse, the number of children to the total population is very high. Most of the women do not work, but spend most of their time at their homes as housewives. This problem is as a result of the so many children and the few resources are available. Others women carry out small scale activities to earn them a living like Kiosks.
According to Malinga (2000) Uganda is still faced with a high population growth rate. In addition, the fertility rates have consistently remained high, recorded at 6.9 in 1995 and 6.5 in 2006. However, if the current population growth rate of 3.2% continues unabated, it is expected that the population size will double by the year 2032. This makes delivery of services more difficult as there are significantly more people to provide services to and increasing population density makes spread of some condition more favourable.
He further stated High fertility and high population growth rate creates high child dependency ratio placing a heavy burden on the working population and challenging government capacity to provide good quality social services to meet basic needs hence resulting into poverty.
According to the MMR Report of Uganda (2006), this has been as a result of the lack of Family Planning in these developing countries which has brought about health hazards and others. Maternal death means the number of mother dying during pregnancy, labour and 1 month after delivery out of 100,000 births. In Kira Town Council compared with other problems like inadequate medical facilities equipments and personal among others. The lack of Family Planning Services has caused many MMR. Therefore embracing Family Planning is one of the ways of curbing down the ever increasing MMR in developing countries especially Africa.
It is generally acknowledged that rapid population constitutes a definite obstacle to socio-economic development population pressure at the family levels have resulted into poor health low income levels, unemployment or underemployment and inadequate access to social services among others thus leaving majority of the large families in unfavorable environmental conditions and in unplanned settlements. This problem too means that at national level, a large part of output or incomes of the Adult will be consumed hence little is left for savings or investments as capital for development purposes for example, improving their modern infrastructure like good houses generally advancing socio-economic development. This is why some governments like the Zambian adopted the Comprehensive National Policy with the objectives of initiating improving and sustain measures aimed at showing the nations high population growth rate (Zambian Comprehensive National Policy, 2004).
Reproductive Health and Rights perspectives for further development in Africa (July, 2010) emphasized that there is a high gap in access to these services like Family Planning Services between the rich and poor, and rural and urban populations and between the educated and uneducated. Further stated that, of all health educators MMR display the highest inequality between the rich and poor both between and within nations. And this has a devastating impaction individuals, families and communities.
In Kira Town Council, Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) has not been embraced, despite the fact that there are so many illiterate Adults and the fact that the government has tried to promote FAL. It has not been implemented to its fullness in the sub-county. This has affected the day to day functions of the people because they lack knowledge.
The situation in Kira Town Council is left unattended to and may contribute to more problems and it is from the above background that the researcher was compelled to establish the accessibility of Family Planning services in Kira Town Council
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Positive attitude to access Family Planning Services by women is a foundation for the development of the nation and to reduce maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate (WHO, 2009).
In Wakiso district however, Family Planning are available but the turn up of women is very low as reported by the District Health Report (2008).
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1.4 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to assess the accessibility of family planning services by women in Kira Town Council, Wakiso District.
1.5 Research Objectives
The study was guided by the following research objectives;
- To identify the awareness about the availability of Family Planning Services in Kira Town Council.
- To establish factors that hinder women from accessing Family Planning Services in Kira Town Council.
- To find out the strategies to promote the access to Family Planning Services by women in Kira Town Council.
1.6 Research Questions
The study was guided by the following research questions;
- What is the level of awareness about the availability of Family Planning Services in Kira Town Council, Wakiso district?
- What factors hinder women from accessing Family Planning Services Kira Town Council, Wakiso district?
- What strategies can be used to promote access family planning services by women in Kira Town Council, Wakiso district?
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study was carried out in Kira Town Council, Wakiso district in the three parishes of Kireka, Bweyogerere and Kira. It focused on accessibility of family planning services by women and lasted for six months.
1.8 Significance of the Study
The study is expected to provide information to stakeholders and service providers to identify the achievements and weakness of the programme in accessing Family Planning Services by women in Kira Town Council.
The information will be used to guide, sensitize and encourage women to access Family Planning in health centres.
The study will enable the researcher to fulfill the requirements for the award of degree in Bachelor of Arts in Social Work Community Development of Kyambogo University.
The information is also expected to help the readers and researchers in educational health planning and policy makers in monitoring of health centres to come up with strategies of how to assist women.
1.9 Limitations
Power problems which affected the typing and editing of this work. This in most cases delayed the students from submitting on time hence prolonging the period that was stipulated for the study.
High expectations and suspicion by the local people. They expected money and other materials of the kind from the researcher while others were suspicious that the researcher had come to spy on them. And some respondents deliberately refused to give information related to the study.
Time scheduled for data collection was not enough and the uncertain changes and increase in costs like transport as compared to the expected costs.
1.10 Delimitations
The area covered was familiar to the researcher since the place was near her home of residence. And communication was effective since the researcher knew the language spoken in the area of the study.
Time was budgeted for to ensure the research is done in the stipulated period of time and also used few respondents but met them at their convenient time. And the respondents were assured of confidentiality of the information they gave at all levels to ensure they provide information.