Knowledge and Need of Emergency Contraception Among Married Women Attending A Public Sector University Hospital in Sindh

Objectives: to asses knowledge and need for of emergency contraception among the women coming to liaquat university hospital. methods: a questionnaire based survey was conducted among 200 married women presenting at department of obstetrics & gynecology,liaquat university hospital hyderabad,sindh during the period of september to december 2009. the administered questionnaire served to find the status of knowledge and need for emergency contraceptives among these women. ethical consideration and confidentiality was ensured. the data entry,processing and analysis were done using spss version 11. results: out of 200 women 172 (84.3%) were aware of contraception but only 47 (23%) had knowledge about emergency contraception. eighty-seven (42%) women were without any formal education. lady health workers and doctors were source of contraceptive knowledge in 104 (52%) cases. unplanned pregnancy was observed in 134 (65.7%) women but unwanted was only in 39 (19.1%) women. drugs were used to get rid of pregnancy by 12 (5.9%),and 13 (6.4%) went for termination of pregnancy. conclusion: contraceptive knowledge among 84% women is partial; as knowledge regarding emergency contraception is seen in only 23% and this indicate lack on part of knowledge provider. lady health worker have been the main source of contraceptive knowledge among the community according to our findings. a prevalence of 67% of unplanned pregnancies is liable to increase acceptance of emergency contraception. the unmet need for emergency contraception is demonstrated by 13% who tried termination. quality training of community health care workers to ensure complete knowledge will be helpful in increasing use of emergency contraception.