The research on the use of contraceptive methods among women aged under 18 and over 35 in adana region

Risky pregnancies result mainly because of negligence of the utilization of family planning techniques and lack of opportunity to access them. A universally approved risk is one pertaining to the age of the mother, namely being below 18 or over 35 years of age. With the aim of studying the contraceptive utilization characteristics of this age group a questionnaire prepared by the researcher was applied to the out-patients of health centres and hospitals of the region.The main findings showed that, inspite of their age difference, the women had similar amount of knowledge and attitudes related to family planning and made their the contraceptive choices without taking their ages into consideration. Both groups of women had come from families of similar sizes(having 6,6±2,9 and 6,4±2,5 children), had similar ideal family size notions(mean of 2,8 children), and had poor knowledge about the relationship between pregnancy and menstruation period(83,9% and 76,1% failed). The first ever used method was an efficient one for 71.4% of the young and 69,2% for the elder group. Mean age at first pregnacy and age thought to be suitable for first pregnacy seemed to increase with the level of education (18,5&21,2 for those with no formal education and 25,1&23,7 for those with high school diploma over) whereas the ideal number of children did not differ(2,8 overall). There was a high rate of unwanted pregnancies(%28,2), and 58,7% of the elder declared to have been using effective methods as condomes and pills, indicating misusage. To add, women who had never used any contraceptives seemed to have similar obstetric history with the rest of the group.To conclude, the discrepancy of contraceptive counseling was evident for the risky age group.Keywords: Women, Pregnancy, Contraception, Risky Pregnancies, Risky Pregnancy Age