This research paper evaluated the family planning program in 15-49 year old women living in Barangay Lucban, San Carlos City, Philippines. Interviews with 20 women found that most had knowledge of family planning but some were still unaware or did not use family planning methods. While family planning access was available, more efforts are needed to educate women in rural areas. Recommendations included strengthening family planning policies, increasing adolescent education, and involving religious leaders to improve family planning implementation.

1. Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation
“The Home of God-Loving and Globally Competent
Individuals”
Martin P. Posadas Avenue, San Carlos City, Pangasinan, 2420, Philippines
GRADUATE SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH
COURSE: SOCIO-CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Research paper
Topic: Evaluation Of Family Planning Program In 15-49 Years Old
Women Living in Barangay Lucban, San Carlos City,
Presented by:
BANKWHOT NUHU, HARUNA.
ID: 15-05694-1571
July, 2016.

2.  Overview of Barangay Lucban;
 Barangay Lucban is one of the serene places in the San
Carlos City, Pangasinan.
 The people are warm, friendly and live a remotely quiet life.
 The street is characterized by a number of low income
earners who own small shops consisting of items like
snacks, soft drinks, detergents, etc.
 A few eateries can also be found there.
 The young ones hang around on evenings to play basket
ball and chat with friends while the older ones sit in small
groups.
 A variable mixture of well educated and low to average
educated persons live in the barangay while majority of the
population live modest lives.

3.  The Philippines is an archipelago nation comprising 7107 islands
divided among three island groups (Luzon, Visayas and
Mindanao) located in south-east Asia (WHO report).
 It has a relatively stable birth and death rate with the population
increasing steadily by 2% for the past decade, one of the highest in
Asia. (health of adolescent, WHO)
 The continued growth of world’s population has become an
urgent global problem. Most of these growths are occurring in
developing countries where fertility rates are very high (Bandura
et al., 2002).
 High fertility rates has contributed to the rapid population growth
and its negative consequences such as poverty and inequality,
environmental degradation, food insecurity, low quality of health
and poor standard of living, hence the need for family planning
cannot be overemphasized as an important regimen.

4.  Family planning (FP) implies the ability of individuals
and couples to participate and attain their desired
number of children and the spacing and timing of their
birth.
 Family planning is a programme to regulate the
number and spacing of children through the practice of
contraception or other methods of birth control
(Houghton et al., 2004).
 Family planning through contraception tries to achieve
two objectives; firstly, to have only the desired number
of children and secondly, to have these children by
proper spacing of pregnancy (Babrals, Malik SL, 2004).
 From the above, family planning can be defined as the
practice of controlling family size by birth spacing.

5.  Intended audience: men and women of reproductive age
(15-49yrs) including adolescents.
 Vision: empower men and women living healthy,
productive and fulfilling lives and exercising the right to
regulate their own fertility through legally and acceptable
family planning services
 Mission: the DOH in partnership with LGUs, NGOs, the
private sectors and communities ensures the availability of
FP information and services to men and women who need
them
 Program goals; to provide universal access to FP
information, education and services whenever and
wherever these are needed.
 Objectives(general); to help couples, individuals achieve
their desired family size within the context of responsible
parenthood and improve their reproductive health.

6.  This evaluation study is useful to health
administrators at various levels for planning,
implementation and assessment of reproductive
health programs and services.
 Data obtained from this study can also be utilized
to identify needed targets for reproductive health
programs and this is an important tool not only for
planning but also for monitoring and evaluation of
health programs in general.
 Statistical data can be beneficial to researchers,
academicians and government/ private health
administrators for population studies.

7.  Assess the availment of family planning
program.
 Investigate the extent of implementation of the
program.
 Assess the extent of availment of the program
in the barangay.

8.  The design used for this study was the qualitative research design.
 The subjects were 20 (n=20) women living in Lucban street, in San
Carlos City, Philippines.
 The age bracket for subjects was 15-49 years for all females.
 The sample for this qualitative study was constructed by
purposive sampling of residents in barangay Lucban who were
interviewed on non-scheduled terms voluntarily, based on a set of
structured questions.
 The structured questions used in the interview, as a checklist was
the primary tool used in the data gathering relevant to the study.
Numerical data obtained was described in tabulated format.

9.  The participants were interviewed on family
planning knowledge-related terms as a means to
ascertain the availment of the family planning
program to the residents, the extent of
implementation of the program as well as the
extent of availment of the program within the
community.
 A little of demographic data was also asked in the
process of the interview based on its relevance to
the evaluation study.
 Careful consideration was ensured in the course of
the interview to questions deemed as private by
the participants.

10. Items
Age group
15-19
years old
20-24
years old
25 years
and above
NA
Total
Knowledge on family
planning program
2 5 8
5
20
Visited one or more family
planning centres recently
2 5 7 6 20
Experienced or participated
in family planning
awareness campaign/training
3 5 9 3 20
Actively using family
planning methods
3 7 4
6
20

11.  From the table;
 it can be noted that most of the participants
have a fairly good knowledge of family
planning program.
 Adolescents of the age group 15-19 years show
a considerable level of sexual activity as
affirmed from the number of women who are
actively using family planning methods .
 It can also be deduced from the table that there
are still some women who have no knowledge
on FP program or utilized a FP centre before.

12.  The impact of family planning in the Philippines has so far been effective
in the lives of both women and men of all age group in the community.
 The 2008 NDHS found that knowledge of contraceptive methods was
high among young women, with 96.3% of 15-19 year olds and 99.2% of
20-24 year olds having heard of any modern method of contraception
(Ibid).
 However, women in urban regions who are also likely to have attained
higher levels of education have shown more positive long-term outcomes
in the use of family planning for birth control than their counterparts in
the rural areas.
 Among all female adolescents aged 15-19 using contraceptive (3.1% of the
total respondents), withdrawal was the common method(41.9%) followed
by the pill, which was the most commonly used modern method (29%).
 Among married adolescents aged 15-19, withdrawal was also the most
commonly used method (9.8%) followed by the pill(8.6%)
 The results shown in the table indicates that family planning program is
quite available at the community level, however more still needs to be
done as there are still a considerable number of women that are still not
aware of the program, or even practice its methods.

13.  50.7% of married women used FP in 2008
 Modern FP methods use reduced; 2003-2008
 Poor women use some modern FP methods like pills, IUD, injectables, more
than rich women. But the modern method where they lag behind the most is
in ligation. This is likely the result of access problems rather than preference.
 Poor women have more (28%) unmet FP need than rich women
 Adolescent women have more (36%) unmet FP need compared with oldest
women.
 Women aged 15-19yrs have the highest increase in fertility(birthrate) over
time (from 1965-2008)
 Philippine women still use more traditional FP methods in recent years
compared to other neighboring countries like Thailand, Cambodia etc.
 Using no FP or traditional method carries high risk of unintended
pregnancy. Women at risk of this include; all women, fecund, sexually
active, not intending to be pregnant.
 Inadequate FP caused 54% of all pregnancies to be unintended in 2008
 Maternal death, abortions and unplanned births and
miscarriages(unintended pregnancies) will rapidly decline if all women use
only modern family planning methods.

14.  This study in addition to cited literature, implies that
there will still be a steady decline in life births amongst
women in urban areas whereas women in local or rural
areas will continue to have more unplanned
pregnancies.
 This is basically due to fact that women in urban areas
are likely to be more educated and exposed to family
planning programs, methods and trainings.
 hence more needs to be done by the government and
private sectors to reach out to communities on a more
consistent base to ensure that family planning practice
becomes a regular but convenient lifestyle amongst
women.

15.  No government supplies
 Weak family planning policies
 Catholic group opposition
 Contraception ban
 Concerns about effects/side-effects
 Misconceptions about fertility.

16.  Infrequent sex is safe
 Some women are prone to pregnancy than others
 If you don’t enjoy sex, you will not get pregnant
 Standing up, jumping up and down, and douching
with water after sex can prevent pregnancy
 Uterine maneuver (hilot) can prevent pregnancy
 If one’s children are grown, one does not get
pregnant
 If one’s period is breastfeeding, one will not get
pregnant
 If one has irregular period, one will not get
pregnant

17.  Health concerns 20.9%
 Want to have as many children 15.5%
 Fear of side effects 13.9%
 Infrequent/or no sex 9.8%
 Infecund 9.8%
NDHS 2008 Table 5.15: Reason for not intending to
use contraception in the future.

18.  In lieu of a proper implementation of the FP program the
following should be considered:
 Enforcement of policies and laws by government on maximum
number of children per unit family
 Adolescent education programs on sex, self esteem, skill
acquisition and peer influence should be frequent routine.
 Curfews for adolescents should be made by parents to keep their
wards from untold danger e.g. rape
 Religious clerics should be involved in government sponsored FP
programs.
 Routine monitoring, promotion and evaluation of FP programs
already established should be ensured by both government and
private sectors.
 Modern FP methods, its convenience and significance, should be
well explained by FP administrators or trainers during
counselling, campaigns or promotions.

19.  Likhaan, identifying barriers to accessing safe motherhood
services, unpub, 2009.
 Guttmacher Institute, Investing in women’s contraception use
in the philippines,2009.
 Junice L. D., training of medical educators on family planning,
2010 ppt.
 DOH.,The Philippine health statistics, 2013
 Philippines National Demographic and Health Survey 2008.
Republic of the Philippines and Calverton, Maryland:
National Statistics office and ICF Macro, 2009.
 State of the world’s children 2009. United Nations
Children’s Fund. (cited 22 September 2010) Available from:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/statistics/tables.php
 http://www.accelerated-personal-
development.com/barriers-to-personal-growth.html