Knowledge and Attitude of Fertile Women towards Bilateral Tubal Ligation in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria | Insight Medical Publishing

Background: Bilateral tubal ligation is the commonest method of contraception worldwide; but is yet to gain wide acceptance in Nigeria as a result of many factors. These include ignorance, illiteracy, superstitious beliefs amongst others. Objectives: To find out the knowledge and attitude of antenatal attendees in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, towards bilateral tubal ligation. Methodology: This cross sectional descriptive study involved a coded questionnaire interview of some antenatal mothers at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital between February and April 2013. Data entry and analysis employed SPSS 15.0 for Windows statistical software. Results: Most of the respondents were in their third decade of life (59.3%), nulliparous (64.5%), and married (97.9%) with tertiary level of education (69.2%). Christians dominated the cohort with preponderance of Pentecostals (51.7%). The knowledge of bilateral tubal ligation amongst the respondents was low. About 52.5% had never heard of bilateral tubal ligation while only 35.5% knew the correct meaning of this. Only 18.3% of the respondents would consider undergoing bilateral tubal ligation in future after completing their family size. The reasons which the respondents gave for never wanting to accept bilateral tubal ligation include permanent nature of the method, fear of operation, and unexpected child loss amongst others. Health personnel/facility was the leading source of information on bilateral tubal ligation. Conclusion: The low level of knowledge and awarenessabout bilateral tubal ligation and some of the negative attitudes and views held against it as identified in this study calls for a more comprehensive and concerted effort on information, education and counselling of the citizenry especially women of reproductive age.