Abstract:

Background: Contraceptives are agents, devices, methods or procedures that diminish or prevent the likelihood of conception. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies often end up in included abortions and their complications. Larger families and many babies are most likely to affect the health of mother and family. Also, in situations of too close pregnancies, children usually are not optimally breastfed and may develop malnutrition. Contraceptive methods have classified either traditional or modern methods.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of women of reproductive age 15-49 at Illemela district in Mwanza.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study that included 206 participants, a questionnaire was used to collect data among these participants. SPSS was used for data analysis and interpretations. The results were represented using frequency tables, bar graphs.

Results: Contraceptive methods were generally applied by most of the participants at Buzuruga ward, whereby implants were the favourite method used (41.7%), followed by condom (24.8%). More than three quarters of the participants had knowledge on contraceptive methods and use was high among the participants did not use contraceptives. 54.4% of the participants had positive attitude on contraceptive to have planned number of children and 8.3% of the participants had negative attitude on contraceptive that causing cancer.

Conclusion: The study concluded that overall knowledge, attitude and practice was good among women towards contraception. Contraceptive knowledge and practice were influenced by health personnel, mass media and friends. There is a need to improve the educational status of the females to improve their understanding and uptake of modern contraceptive.