Participants’ poor Knowledge about the IUDs’ benefits and source of information
Women seemed to know the benefits of short term contraceptives such as pills, injectables and condoms, but had poor knowledge about IUDs and their benefits. Service users indicated these benefits of these non-IUDs to include both financial health and other benefits. The main source of information was described to be the social media and the urban health extension worker located in their communities. These assertions are supported by narratives of service users as exemplified below:
“I knew most of the contraceptive methods by name including pills, injectable, condoms, and a contraceptive which are inserted on the upper arms. And I knew well about the benefits of these contraceptives except IUDs. These short term contraceptives have benefits for child spacing, for child limiting and health of the mother and her child, it saves the unnecessary expenses of the households and the country. I heard this information from different sources including TV, Radio and Brushers from Health centre and NGOs. Additionally, urban health extension workers (community workers) gave me some information about contraceptives methods” (short term contraceptive user 1, female aged 29 years)
“Using short term contraceptive method has several benefits; among those benefits, it helps me to have a smaller family size. If we have a small family size we would teach and rear our children properly without financial constraint. Another benefit of using these contraceptives is to have sexual intercourse without any stress that means we will not worry about whether I will be pregnant or not. Now, I don’t want to have more than two children in my lifetime.”(Short term contraceptive user 2, female aged 21 years)
Although women demonstrated to have knowledge about the benefits of the short term contraception use, there was also negative perceptions of how these contraceptives did work. Furthermore, perceived negatives of health outcomes when IUDs were used including development of obesity seemed to be deterrent to women using these. The source of these misinformation and misunderstanding seemed to originate from within the communities, including from their friends and media.
“I heard about IUDs from Television as it’s inserted into Womb. It is only removed by health professionals when I want to remove it. My friend used IUDs and she complained as she faced health problem and she became obese “bokach’ means ‘being fat’ then she discontinued. And she advised me not to use IUDs but use an injectable contraceptive method instead.” (Short term contraceptive user 3, female aged 23 years)
The negative perceptions about the complications of IUDs expressed by service users were also a common knowledge by service providers including by the head of Hossana health centre, who associated the low utilization of IUDs with the lack of awareness and knowledge about the benefits of IUDs. In his own words, He stated:
“In our health centre, the short term contraceptive utilization coverage is greater than 90% except for IUDs, the reasons for low utilization of IUDs is the lack of awareness about IUDs, lack of knowledge about benefits of IUDs, misconception about IUDs and fear of side effects are the reasons for not utilization of IUDs” (service provider 1, male aged 26)
On the same vein, the urban health extension worker (community health worker) had views supportive of the head of health centre’s assertion that poor perceptions about the effectiveness of IUDs had deterrent effects on IUDs utilisation in Hossana. As she had worked as urban health extension worker /community health workers/ for seven years, she acknowledged a gap in service provision and the lack of collaborative effort among different stakeholders to address these issues. The lack of effective service provision was understood to have resulted in in low utilisation and poor perceptions of the benefits of IUDs among the service user. These assertions are supported by her statements below.
“…only our effort is not enough to create sufficient awareness and knowledge about IUDs. I think it good to integrate our effort with different stakeholders at the community. We are not delivering strong health education about IUDs as expected from us at the community level; hence the level of awareness and knowledge of the community about IUDs is very low” (service provider 1, male aged 26)
Inadequate Counselling and poor provision of information for effective decision making about the use and benefits of IUDs
Adequate counselling is necessary as an effective tool to aid women’s decision about types and effective use of and any contraceptive method. The lack of effective counselling and inadequate provision of appropriate public information for the women to use may also be the cause of the shortfall in IUDs utilisation. The assertions below further reinforce how the local health services are poorly equipped in helping the service users to increase IUDs utilisation.
“I am coming to this health centre every three months to receive the injectable contraceptive/Dipoprivara/ method but I haven’t received any counselling about the benefits of contraceptive you are asking /IUDs/. After they gave me the injection, they give me an appointment to come back after three months on appointment date” (Short term contraceptive user 4, female aged 23 years)
Poor engagement of service users by service providers seemed to further affect women’s health resulting in discontinuation of the service. This is exemplified by the woman below who had been using IUDs for three months. Poor service delivery was also stated as the reason to exiting the service by a woman who found private sector services to be much better. These assertions are confirmed by statement below.
“I used IUDs for the last three months. After I have started using this method my behaviour was completely changed ‘yanagergnal’, ‘yabesachegnal’ means it makes me ‘talkative’ and ‘irritable’. Moreover, I feel some discomfort around my abdomen. Then I went to a clinic to get advice from Health personals, the health care provider pressured me to change another type of contraceptive methods without telling the reasons of those problems (behavioural change and discomfort around the abdomen) but I didn’t agree with health personal advice then I went to a private clinic near to my home. And the health personals in privet clinic removed IUDs and I started using the injectable contraceptive method. After starting the injectable method my behaviour and my health is improved rapidly” (Short term contraceptive user 5, female aged 30 years)
Misinformation from within the community about the adverse effects of IUDs, also influenced others to not use them. As for service user 6, who is a new user of contraceptives seemed to have received, misinformation from a friend who had been on IUDs. The friends’ myths about IUDs seem to have influenced her decision against using IUDs.
“I am a new user for short term contraceptive method/injectable/ and I got some information from my friend she was previously IUDs user and I had never got counselling from the health personals about benefits of IUDs. She told me to use another type of contraceptive methods, she told me as it causes infertility as well as it is not easy to remove from the womb as another contraceptive methods and it’s not comfortable at the time of sexual intercourse’ (Short term contraceptive user 6, female aged 31 years)
Similarly, for service user 7, aged 19 years, misinformation including the potential of IUDs to cause discomfort during sexual intercourse, led her to avoid this type of contraception. Perceived inadequacy of service provision including a lack of technical expertise in the setting was also an important factor that precludes patients from using IUDs as described below.
“I decided to not use this type (IUDs) of contraceptive method because I was afraid of the side effects, it might be not comfortable to have sexual intercourse. Frequent checking of IUDs tread is boring and I have a fear of it might change the position at the time of hard works. At the time when I want to remove, I could face several problems to remove it such as the absence of trained health personals and absence necessary equipment’s to remove it.” (Short term contraceptive user 7, female aged 19 years)
Similar assertions including doubts about the available expertise in the setting such as adequately trained service providers, seemed to be a significant reason for service users to lack information about the availability, benefits and further information about why women should use IUDs.
“…….for your surprise, on my first visit to this Health centre, I asked the health personal about what would be better for me? But the health personals told me to use injectable contraceptive method without telling about any available contraceptives in the health centre including IUDs.” (Short term contraceptive user 8, female aged 19 years)
“I want to the health centre to know the types of available contraceptives to choice and I have asked one of the health officers in the health centre about currently available contraceptive methods and its benefits. He told me about all available contraceptive methods and their benefits. Then, I preferred to use Implant rather than IUDs because I scared of solid device insertion in my Womb then I think it might have health problems including genital area infection and I could bleed at the time of insertion.” (Short term contraceptive user 9, female aged 23 years)