Gender Inequality In Family Planning

Age :

First of all, age influences practice of family planning especially during active reproductive years (Jawa & Rahman, 2015). Use of contraceptive was highest among women of 30-39 years old as compared to women of 25 years old and below in a study conducted in Samarahan district (Jawa & Rahman, 2015). The study in Bangladesh by Kamal et al. (2013) showed that increasing male involvement in family planning when age of husband and women increases. Older age men involved more in family planning (Ling & Tong, 2017).

Gender :

Gender inequality is one of the factors that affects decision-making on family planning issues. Many women in Marwanza agreed that family planning methods helped improve their health status and space children but they

Men with shorter duration of marriage participated more in family planning (Ling & Tong, 2017).

No. of children :

Family planning was adopted by couples in order to control the numbers of children they desire to have and also the gap in terms of years between two children ( Gogoi et al., 2017 ).

Birth Spacing : Nevertheless, birth spacing is also one of the important components in family planning. According to WHO (2005), an interval of at least 2 years or 24 months from a live birth to the next pregnancy are the most recommended to prevent several negative consequences to both maternal and child. Birth intervals vary from one population to another where the average of Nepal, Ethiopia and Malaysia are 36.2 months, 31-33 months and 26 months respectively (Karkee & Lee, 2016). Closely spaced pregnancy which is shorter than the minimum 18 months indirectly increase infant mortality rate through factors such as premature weight or low birth weight baby. A prospective US study also found that maternal obesity risks had increased with each inter-pregnancy interval of less than 12 months, as well as increased rate of postnatal depression which associated with higher risks of subsequent divorce cases (Grundy & Kravdal, 2014). Child spacing was the most known benefit of family planning benefit known by the woman (n=214, 64.1%) (Onwuzurike & Uzochukwu,

All married male attendees to the clinic, with mean age of 38.3 years old (SD=7.8) and below were recruited to answer a set of self-administered questionnaire, asking for their involvement in family planning activities. There were 167 respondents in the study. The questionnaire was adapted and modified from National Family Development Board which was designed for a survey to study the contraceptive methods used among Malaysian women. Results showed that almost all of the respondents discussed with their wives about future child planning (FCP) and desired family size (DFS) and about two-thirds of them discussed pregnancy planning (PP) with their wives. Despite their participation in these family planning activities, it was claimed that issue of family planning method (FPM) was tended not brought into discussion. It was also shown that those discussed PP (m=40.9, SD=6.4), FPM (m=41.1, SD=6.8) and DFS (m=38.9, SD=7.7) were older compared to those who did not. In short, in discussing the family planning activities, the level of participation among the men