THE ATTITUDE OF UNDERGRADUATE SANDWICH STUDENTS TOWARDS FAMILY PLANNING METHODS AT UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education can be described as a dynamic activity which involves an orderly, deliberate and sustained eort to develop knowledge and skills (Olusakin, 1998). As Awoniyi (1999) puts it, formal education is a process by which the human mind develops through learning at school in stages from pre-primary through primary, secondary to tertiary (university) institution. The present socio-economic situation in Nigeria has made it obvious that the women must be given sound, formal education as their male counterparts are given. According to Adiele (2000), the education of the girl-child was not a common phenomenon in the traditional Nigerian society before independence. In fact, her birth would not attract so much celebration as that of the male-child, and depending on the number of female children the mother had given birth to before her, the birth of an additional girl-child could cause her mother her marriage. This is still a major problem in some homes even among educated men. Therefore, incessant child-bearing places a woman in a very weak position physically, economically and psychologically, yet barrenness is viewed as a curse in the Nigerian society due to high infantile mortality, the capacity to breed was much valued but advances in the field of medicine have greatly increased the survival rate among both infants and adults.

According to Onyeanwu (2001), the incessant childbearing is therefore, no longer necessary, instead, it poses great danger to the health of the mother and also increased family size that cannot be supported with the family resources, especially now that the Nigerian economy has nose-dived and the resultant effect of unemployment among men in the society. Therefore, to improve the living condition of Nigerian families, the life of the women who are the cornerstone of every household should be improved and the regulation of the size of the nuclear family, through family planning, cannot be overemphasized (Lai, 1990).

There has been a lot of discrimination against the female gender. In fact people just see them as breeding machines, in spite of the availability of family planning. The dissemination of appropriate and relevant information would lead to the acquisition of knowledge skills and women empowerment. This can help in breaking the intractable poverty cycle which many Nigerian families have come to be associated with due to ignorance of family planning devices and the attitude of many women towards the application of such devices. According to Anyanwu (2002) there are many methods of contraceptives in the society. These include the condom; the withdrawal method; the intrauterine contraceptives device, the diaphragm, the spermicides, the douching methods etc. Among all the methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies by the youths in schools, the condom and the pills are the most commonly needed or are used. Apart from its side effects, the variety of pills are used by women in many society today. This is because of its relative effectiveness. Also, the 90% of women, especially girls in various school at the tertiary level, use condoms as preventives methods in pregnancies. This is because, the condom is easy to use and has virtually no side effect after use. Therefore students both male and female prefer to use them, apart from deriving sexual pleasures they perceived prevention of pregnancy gives them assurance (Uzodike, 2003; Alani, 2002 and Adedoyin, 2004).

1.2 Theoretical Framework

Family planning refers to the services offered to educate men and women about family life and the encouragement given to them to achieve their wishes with regards to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, securing desired pregnancies, spacing of pregnancies and limiting the number of children in the interest of overall family and the family socio-economic status (Enudi, 1986). According to Amaechi (2003), the Federal Government released a National Policy on Population for development, unity, progress and self-reliance in 1988 included as part of the policy statement was the promotion of awareness among citizens of this country of population problems and the eect of rapid population growth on development and also the provision to every one of the necessary information and education on the value of reasonable family size, the individual family and the future of the nation on achieving self-reliance. Ajuzie (2000) theorizes that the value of family planning on the stability and the well being of the family need to be taught and the message should reach every woman since we practice the patriarchal family system because some want to oppose the idea of family planning and since men are considered as the head of the family, the decisions regarding the family size and child spacing cannot be taken by the woman alone. The government should not only design but take conscious eort to see to the implementation of enlightenment and educative programme regarding family methods planning, some of which are: Vaginal douche, Diaphragm with cream, Cream or jelly alone, Use of condom, Calendar safe period calculation, Intra-urine device (I.U.D.), use of pills, Vasectomu, and Bilateral tubal ligation (BTL). Each of these methods according to Anyanwu (2004) has its own advantages and disadvantages which should be clearly understood before a choice is made