Cultural factors affecting the use of family planning services in an Aboriginal community.
The attitudes of the women of an Aboriginal community towards family size, spacing, and planning are briefly reviewed. It is shown that the felt need of the women for a means of control of reproduction and their approval of contraception is not matched by the use of the available family planning services. It is suggested that this gap between attitudes and use is due to the lack of practical recognition by the providers of these services of the indigenous conventions which surround the discussion and management of menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and contraception. Several ways in which family planning services could be made more acceptable culturally to both women and men of Aboriginal communities are proposed.
D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D003151:Community Health Centers; D003267:Contraception; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008598:Menstruation; D011247:Pregnancy; D011781:Quackery; D000095283:Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples