Barriers to contraceptives use among women in a low resource setting in Enugu, south east Nigeria

Objective of the study: The study was aimed to determine barriers to modern contraceptive use among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Enugu State University Teaching Hospital from 1st March to 31st May 2014. Materials and Methods: Using a semi-structured questionnaire, relevant data were extracted. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi InfoTM statistical software version 7. p value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 432 women participated in the study. Their mean age was 28.6±4.4 years. The majority were married (93.06%), multiparous (59%) and mainly Igbos (93.06%). Although the level of awareness of modern contraceptive among the respondents was high (91.8%), only about 35% of them (n=151/432) had ever used modern contraceptives in the past. Over one-third (36.3%, n=144/397) of the respondents who were aware of modern contraceptive do not intend to ever use modern contraceptive in future. The self-reported barriers to the use of modern contraceptive were; religious barrier (53.9%), fear of side effect (24%), husband’s disapproval (17.8%) and cost. Conclusions: Addressing these identified barriers hopefully will promote the use of modern contraceptive for family planning thus preventing unintended pregnancy in our sub region.