From courses for family planning among women in the province of Gaziantep, skill, knowledge, attitudes and behavior evaluation of

Maternal and child health is one of the most important health problems in Turkey and in the whole world. Family planning is essential for the growth of healthy individuals. Information on society's attitudes and behavior regarding family planning was examined in this descriptive study. This research sample consisted of 1250 women who attended handicraft courses affiliated to the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality between November 2015 and March 2016. Family planning attitude, the Coopersmith self-esteem scale and personal information form, SPSS 22.0 statistical analysis program, number, percentage, mean, standard deviation values and x² test were used for the analysis of data obtained in the study. The average age of the women is 33.69±10.59, 80.0% are married and the average age of their first marriage is 16.46±7.73, 31.7% women are primary school graduates, 54.6% are housewives. The average number of pregnancies is 2.84±2.36. The average number of live births is 1.87±2.00, 17.8% stated that they had 1 miscarriage. The information source for women's family planning said that 46.9% were ASM and its employees, 42.3% has received family planning advice, 54.8% wanted to receive advice. Family planning defined 61.9% of women as "having enough children to look after". Women stated that 58.0% had used any method of family planning, 65.2% the modern and 12.3% the traditional method of family planning. 65.5% of women have high self-esteem, 51.0% have high attitudes and the average point on the attitude scale was 134.99 ±23.07. Family planning services should be organized to respond to society's needs.