Demand for family planning in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

A widescale family planning program was begun in Bangladesh in 1966. Despite a heightened awareness of and knowledge about family planning, contraceptive practices were not widely accepted. The reasons for low demand for family planning were sought in a study of 2462 married Bangladesh couples, 1974-75. 71% couples did not want to have more children. 22% expressed the intention to use a family planning method in the future. The actual practice rate was 3.6% (82 couples). The higher the number of living children, the stronger the desire to prevent birth. 82% husbands and 78% wives knew about family planning. Only 26.8% of those who knew about it planned to use it. The ideal family size was 3.39 (husbands) and 3.72 (wives). Since male children are more desireable families often overstep their ideals to produce more sons. Cultural, societal and educational factors may prevent contraceptive practice as well as inaccessibility to services. Before acceptability can be continued it must be initiated, perhaps by lowering ideal family size