Family Planning: the knowledge of women served in the Unified Health System about reproductive health

The aim of the study was to analyze the knowledge of women assisted in the Unified Health System, in the outpatient clinic of a school hospital in the South of Rio de Janeiro on family planning and reproductive health. This was a descriptive exploratory study with a qualitative approach, carried out in the Integrated Medicine outpatient clinic of School Hospital, in the Gineco-obstetric care sector, with women who seek health care there. An interview was carried out and the analysis was made using the Categorization of Responses. Thirty women participated in the research: there is a predominance of 46.6% in the age groups from 25 to 30 years of age, as for the level of education, 36.6% have incomplete high school and 96.6% live in the municipality where the study was carried out . Regarding the type of method used to avoid becoming pregnant, the contraceptive (oral and injectable) stood out with 46.6%. According to the interviewees' statements, the following categories of analysis were created: 1) Ignorance of the purposes of family planning; 2) Unpreparedness for the use and discredit of barrier and hormonal methods for continuous planning; and 3) The woman's understanding of surgical sterilization as a way to minimize her supposedly restricted guilt of the woman due to the current unplanned pregnancy. It was concluded that the women interviewed have a deficient knowledge about family planning.