NMICS 2010 Report - Central Bureau of Statistics

VII.Reproductive HealthContraceptionAppropriate family planning is important to the health of women and children by: (i) preventingpregnancies that are too early or too late; (ii) extending the period between births; and (iii) limitingthe number of children born. Access by all couples to information and services to preventpregnancies that are too early, too closely spaced, too late or too many is critical.Table RH.1 presents information on the current use of contraception by women aged 15–49 yearswho are currently married or in union. Some 52 percent of women in the MFWR reported that theyused some form of contraception, with 51 percent using modern methods and one percent usingtraditional methods. The most popular method was injectables/Dipo/Sangini (16 percent); this wasfollowed by female sterilization (15 percent), male sterilization (seven percent), male condom (fivepercent) and the pill (five percent).There was little variation by region or urban/rural area. Subregionally, the highest contraceptiveprevalence was in the Far Western Terai (65 percent) and the lowest was in the Far WesternMountains (34 percent). Contraceptive prevalence was highest among women aged 35–39 years and40–44 years (both 68 percent) and lowest among women aged 15–19 years (21 percent). Adolescentgirls (aged 15–19 years) were far less likely to use contraception than women in other age groups.Among this age group, condom use was most likely (11 percent) followed by injectables (sixpercent). The proportion of women using any method of contraception ranged from 55 percent forwomen with no education to 49 percent for women with at least secondary education. Amongwomen with no education, female sterilization (19 percent) was the most common method,followed by injectables/Dipo/Sangini (16 percent) and male sterilization (eight percent). Amongwomen with primary education, injectables/Dipo/Sangini (17 percent) was the most popularmethod, followed by female sterilization (nine percent) and male sterilization (six percent). Amongwomen with at least secondary education, injectables/Dipo/Sangini (16 percent) was the mostpopular method, followed by male condom (12 percent) and the pill (six percent). Women in therichest quintile (67 percent) were more likely to use some form of contraception than those in thepoorest quintile (36 percent). Female sterilization showed a strong trend by wealth quintile, with thelowest percentage for women in the poorest quintile (five percent) and the highest percentage forwomen in the richest quintile (23 percent). This trend was also apparent for male sterilization, thepill and male condom.102