Contraceptive Use in Women From a Resettlement Area in Delhi

1. To find out the prevalence of contraceptive use and study the socio-demographic profile of women within three years of their marriage. 2. To study the reasons for not using the modern contraceptive methods.

Cross-sectional study.

A resettlement colony located at Mata Sundari Road, Delhi.

All the 206 recently married women i.e. between 15th July 1998 and 15th July 2001.

Proportions, chi-square test.

Out of a total of 206 women studied 53.9% were adolescents. 76.1% of the subjects had their first child when they were between 15-19 years of age. Prevalence of contraception was 45.1%. Only 2.9% had used a contraceptive to space the first child. Significantly higher proportion of women adopted contraception after the birth of first child as compared to those with zero parity (p<0.01). Also women aged more than 19 years were more likely to use contraception as compared to the adolescents (p<0.01). Main reasons cited for not using the contraception to space the first child was being newly married (53.1%) and too soon after the marriage (22.4%). 30.6% of them had unmet need to contraception.