KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF CONTRACEPTIVES AMONG POSTNATAL WOMEN RECEIVING HEALTHCARE SERVICES AT ALGON COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CENTER, IBADAN, OYO STATE

ABSTRACT Lack of knowledge and use of contraceptives among women leads to unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and adverse health outcomes for both women and their children. Additionally, it hinders efforts to control population growth and poses challenges to achieving women's reproductive health and rights. This study investigated the knowledge and use of contraceptives among postnatal women receiving healthcare services at Algon Comprehensive Health Center, Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Simple random sampling technique by ballot method was used to select respondents. Data was collected using a self-developed and validated questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.8. Data was entered into SPSS version 26 and was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency tables and simple percentages. Results revealed that majority of the respondents (100%) have a good knowledge about contraceptives, (93.94%) of the respondents agreed that contraceptives are methods of family planning and majority of the respondents (93.94%) are familiar with the use of condom as one of the method of contraceptives. (54.55%) of the respondents attested that they have used contraceptives in preventing pregnancy. The hypotheses result showed that there is a significant difference in the level of knowledge about contraceptive methods between postnatal women who use contraceptives and those who do not use contraceptive (X2 =0.613, df =2, p