Reasons for not practicing contraception in a rural population of Dehradun District.

This study was undertaken to find out the reasons for not using the contraception among Ever Married Women aged 15-49 years in rural population of Dehradun District and to study the factors for discontinuation of contraceptive methods among women who had everusedany method. A Cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 2278 Ever Married Women aged 15-49 years in 20 villages from Doiwala block of Dehradun District, Uttaranchal. A multistage sampling technique was used for the selection of villages. Personal interview method with house-to-house visit was adopted as the study method. In this study, Knowledge of any method of contraception was almost universal (96.9%) among ever-married women but 61.81% of the couples had ever used while only 49.9% were currently using any method of contraception. Most common reasons for not using contraception were the desire for more children (21.5%) or particularly a male child (5.4%) followed by religious reasons (9.1%) and opposition by husband or family members (3.3%). Present study revealed that awareness about contraceptive methods is almost universal but counseling of eligible couples on importance of small families and assisting them in making informed choice is needed to remove the obstacles in practicing contraception.