Addressing Low Contraceptive Use in Rural Tanzania
Public DepositedAdd to collection
You do not have access to any existing collections. You may create a new collection.
Downloadable Content
Download PDFCitation
MLA
Barker, Nora Kelly. Addressing Low Contraceptive Use In Rural Tanzania. 2010. https://doi.org/10.17615/0q9g-mt42APA
Barker, N. (2010). Addressing Low Contraceptive Use in Rural Tanzania. https://doi.org/10.17615/0q9g-mt42Chicago
Barker, Nora Kelly. 2010. Addressing Low Contraceptive Use In Rural Tanzania. https://doi.org/10.17615/0q9g-mt42- Last Modified
- February 27, 2019
- Creator
-
Barker, Nora Kelly
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Public Health Leadership Program
- Abstract
- The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) for Tanzania is high at 578 deaths/100,000 live births and is in fact, getting worse. (TDHS, 2004-5). By comparison, the rate in 2005 for developed countries was 9/100,000 live births. The fastest way to lower this high incidence of maternal deaths is through healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies by using modern methods of contraception. The rate of unmet need for family planning (spacing or limiting pregnancies) is 22% throughout for the country as a whole. Family sizes are larger and access to family planning services significantly lower in the rural areas (TDHS, 2004-5). The President of Tanzania is committed to lowering maternal mortality and the government of Tanzania realizes that in order to reach Millennium Development Goal 5, lowering maternal mortality, the high rate of unmet family planning needs must to be addressed. In 2009 the goal was set to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) from the current 26% to 60% by 2015. Since only 25% of the population lives in urban areas, contraception uptake will need to increase significantly in the rural areas. There are many reasons for low usage of family planning including poor access to care, lack of supplies, cost and widely held misconceptions about the risks of family planning versus pregnancy. These issues will have to be addressed in order to meet the goal of 60% coverage. The government has set out goals to be met at different levels from national to local. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and other civic organizations are working with the government to try to achieve these goals. Some approaches used in Tanzania and other developing countries to increase contraceptive use include developing the capacity of district officials so that they budget enough for family planning needs, working with religious leaders, training community health workers to give injections of DMPA (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate, commonly known as Depo-Provera), and working with traditional healers. In this paper I will address some of the strategies and approaches that have been tried and proven successful in different areas of Tanzania and selected other developing countries. I argue that they should be adopted and promoted at the national level throughout Tanzania to increase the use of modern methods of contraception and to ultimately lower the maternal mortality ratio.
- Date of publication
- May 2010
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Track: HC&P
- Paper type: Research or research design
- Degree
- Master of Public Health
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2010
- Language
- Deposit record
- b6f6bdeb-f0b9-4907-a2ad-769b5d2e1080
Relations
- Parents:
This work has no parents.