Sexuality, Contraception And Unintended Pregnancy Among Female Student Nurses In Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Background – There has been\rincreased concern on human\rsexuality, especially with respect to\rcontraception and the control of\rsexually transmissible infections.\rThere is need to identify the sociodemographic\rcharacteristics that\rinfluence sexual behaviour and\rcontraceptive use among young women.\rMethods – A descriptive cross\rsectional study that focused on the\rsocio-demographic characteristics,\rsexuality, knowledge and use of\rmodern contraceptive technology as\rwell as interventions taken in the\revent of inadvertent pregnancy was\rconducted. A structured, close- ended\rquestionnaire was randomly\radministered to 195 female nursing\rstudents with 60, 65 and 70 of them in\rtheir first, second and third year\rrespectively.\rResults – Majority (76.7%) of the\rstudents were in the age bracket of 20\r– 24years. While 65.6% of them were\rsexually active, only 54.9% had\rknowledge of family planning.\rCondom was the commonest\rcontraceptive used (37.4%) and the\rmain reasons were that of\reffectiveness (31.8%) and safety\r(30.3%). There was a significant\rrelationship between respondents with\rmultiple sexual partners and incidence\rof unwanted pregnancies (p=0.003).\rThe majority (51.2%) of those with\runwanted pregnancies resorted to\rinduced abortion.Conclusion – In view of the high\rprevalence of induced abortion among the respondents, current nursing training programmes need to be reviewed to meet the peculiar\rreproductive health needs of female\rstudent nurses.