Knowledge, attitudes and practices of Health professionals about immediate postpartum family planning

Abstract

Objective: In Rwanda, modern FP use has known a tremendous increment from 6% in 2000 to 45% in 2010.However, it increased only by 3% in the next 5years up to 48% in 2015.To improve this, the MoH, and its partners, introduced the scale up program of immediate postpartum family planning services in 2015. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare providers towards immediate postpartum Family Planning as pillars to success of this program. Methods: The data was collected through self-structured questionnaire after IRB approval. The study sample was 235 healthcare providers (Residents, GPs, Midwives and Nurses) that were purposively selected from CHUK, RMH, Byumba and Kibagabaga DHs, Rushaki and Rutare HCs. The data was analyzed using SPSS 25 and Excel. Results: Of all 235distributed questionnaires, response was 196(83.4%). Our study showed different level of knowledge on modern family planning methods use. Residents showed the highest score (95.4%) and nurses showed lowest score at 77.1%; nurses at DH showed inadequate knowledge (67%) according to study target score of 70%. Participants showed different attitudes to family planning methods. Work overload, lack of appropriate materials both impact FP as reported by 41.8% and 23.4% respectively. Conclusion: On the basis of these findings, healthcare providers’ training on all methods of family planning will help to acquire new evidence and overcome some misperceptions to family planning success.