Palestinian Family Survey 2010 Final Report - Palestinian Central ...

PCBS: Palestinian Family Survey, 2010ContraceptionAppropriate family planning is important to the health of women and children by: 1) preventing pregnancies that aretoo early or too late; 2) extending the period between births; and 3) limiting the number of children. Access by allcouples to information and services to prevent pregnancies that are too early, too closely spaced, too late or too manyis critical.Current use of contraception is defined as the proportion of women who reported they were using a family planningmethod at the time of the interview. only women who were married at the time of survey were asked questions aboutcurrent use of contraception.Current use of contraception was reported by 53 percent of currently married women with 41 percent using modernmethods and 11 percent using traditional methods (Table RH.5). The most popular method was the IUD which wasused by one in four married Palestinian women (26 percent). The next most popular method is the pill, which is used byseven percent of married women. About five percent of married women reported use of the condom and six percentwithdrawal, while three percent use female sterilization as a method of contraception.Knowledge of contraceptive methods is strongly associated with population policies related to decrease of fertilityrates and health policies seeking to rationalize the pattern of reproductive behavior and avoid pregnancy risks. Alsodecrease mortality rates among women, infants and children under 5. On the other hand, contraceptive indicationsare associated with policies seeking to improve the lifestyle and standard of living to enhance human rights consideringcontraceptive methods as a human right.Use of family planning methodsCouples usually use contraceptives for child spacing, limiting number of children or stop child bearing. Women wereasked if they agree to use or their husbands use a family planning method. Data shows that about 89 percent of womenagree to use, about 3 percent have conditional agreement and about 7 percent didn’t agree totally. Results showthat no significant geographical variation, where 88 percent of women in the West Bank agree to use family planningmethods compared to about 90 percent in Gaza Strip, and 7 percent in the West Bank didn’t agree compared to about6 percent in Gaza Strip.Table PRH.2: Couples agreement on using contraceptionPercentage Distribution of Women Aged 15-49 Years Currently Married by Husbands’ Agreement on using Contraceptivesand Region, State of Palestine, 2010Couples Agreement on using Contraceptives West Bank Gaza Strip State of PalestineAgree 88.4 90.4 89.2Conditional agreement 2.5 3.1 2.7Disagree 7.1 5.9 6.6Don’t know/ not sure 2.0 0.6 1.5Total 100.0 100.0 100.0Currently married women 6704 3913 10617Results show that the woman’s age has no impact on agreement of using contraceptives particularly for the age groups15-44, where the percentage is almost about 89 and 90 percent, while the age group 44-49 was 86 percent and thepercentage of disagree to use increases in this age group compared to the other age groups about nine percent.81