Contraceptive practices among women seeking termination of pregnancy in one public hospital in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Background: There is significantly high contraceptive knowledge in South Africa, but theuptake of contraceptives is average to low with resultant soaring of unplanned pregnancy andrising statistics of termination of pregnancy (TOP) services. This study aimed to establish thecontraceptive practices among women in the South African population seeking TOP in onepublic hospital in Eastern Cape, South Africa.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among women seeking TOP in a women’sclinic. Self-administered questionnaires were used as data collection tool, and the data collectedwere entered into SPSS software for analysis, using descriptive statistics to calculate frequenciesand percentages while chi-square test was used to determine the associations between thesocio-demography and contraceptive practices of the participants.Results: Majority of the women were aged between 20 and 29 years, had secondary education,unemployed, single and resided in townships. Contraceptive uptake prior to termination ofpregnancy (CTOP) among them was 44.1%, but 85.8% had good contraceptives knowledge.Their contraceptive practices are determined by partner’s opinion, source and availability ofcontraceptives, previous CTOP, side effect of contraceptives and having children. Age group,educational level and employment status were found to be related to the contraceptivepractices of the participants but were not statistically significant.Conclusion: To reduce unplanned pregnancies and subsequent number of women seekingCTOP, the socio-economic factors associated with contraceptive practices as well as theprogrammes, policies and guidelines of contraceptives need to be improved on for anyimprovement on the factors determining contraceptive practices