Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Sterilization

The purpose of the present study was to investigate about the knowledge and attitude of women residing in the rural area regarding sterilization. This study deals with the analysis and interpretation of the data collected from 100 women attending selected rural antenatal clinic to assess knowledge and attitude towards sterilization. Majority of the rural pregnant women had good knowledge about sterilization. Common method chosen was female sterilization. None adopted male sterilization. Reasons for not using contraception were desire to have child, desire for boys, worried about side effect, opposition from family members, felt pregnancy was naturally spaced, no specific reasons, couldn’t avail contraceptive facilities, inconvenient to use. Effort was made to identify reasons for wide gap between knowledge and attitude of contraception. All women knew at least one method of contraception but 48% were using some sort of contraception. Most known method was female sterilization, least known were injectables and male sterilization. Educational and motivational activities from doctors and health workers is needed to promote the use of contraception.