Birth Control Pills: Profile of Acceptors at University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: Oral contraceptives are among the earliest, safest, and most common method of fertility control especially in the developed countries. However, there is paucity of data on birth control pills in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria.

Objectives: To determine the uptake rate of oral contraceptive pills and review the profile of the acceptors at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, (UPTH) Southern Nigeria.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of all clients who accepted and used the oral contraceptive pills at the family planning clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Port Harcourt, between 1st January, 2006 to 31st December, 2015.

Results: During the study period, 6341 clients accepted modern contraceptive methods in the UPTH, out of which 124 chose the oral contraceptive pills, giving an uptake rate of 1.96%. The majority (64.5%) of the clients were in the age range of 20-29 years, were Christians (93.5%), parous (91.9%) and 66.1% had tertiary education. One hundred and fourteen (91.9%) used the pills for child spacing, while 10 (8.1%) used them for terminal contraception. No unintended pregnancy occurred during the observation period, giving a Pearl pregnancy Index of zero.

Conclusion: Birth control pills are very effective and safe contraceptive method but with very low uptake rate and rapidly diminishing patronage in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. Clients who accept this method in our centre are young, parous, well educated women who want to space their pregnancies.