Socio-Economic And Cultural Barriers To Utilization Of Contraceptives Among Women In Ndhiwa District, Homa Bay County, Kenya.

Contraceptive prevalence was already high in developed countries in 1960 – 1965 (67 percent) and it remained over time at 69 percent in 2005 and 67 percent in 2007 United Nations (2007). On the other hand, contraceptive prevalence – an originality in developing countries at 9 percent in 1960 – 1965 prolonged to 59 percent in 2005 and 62 percent in 2007 United Nations (2007).

The sharpest increase in contraceptive prevalence occurred between the late 1960s and 1980s. This was also the period characterized by the launch and expansion of national family planning programmes in several heavily populated countries, including China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, United Nations (2005a).

Generally, there has been an impressive increase in contraceptive prevalence in the entire world (Carl and Toshiko, 2013). However, at the regional level, the progress in the efficiency of family planning programme and in the range of contraceptive method used has been different. In fact, in 2013, investigations by Carl and Toshiko (2013) revealed that Africa and sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest contraceptive prevalence at 31 percent and 26 per cent, respectively, as compared to 75 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 65 percent in Asia (Table 1.1) (Carl and Toshiko, 2013). Thus, the statistics show that the use of modern methods in Africa and sub-Saharan Africa continues to be about one-third of the levels in the other two developing regions. Differential in contraceptive prevalence is also distinguished at the sub-regional levels within each major area. For example, Northern and Southern Africa regions have much higher prevalence of all methods or of modern methods of contraception compared to any other African region (Carl and Toshiko, 2013). Comparatively, utilization of modern methods of contraception is very low in Middle and Western Africa (Carl and Toshiko, 2013), 8 per cent and 11 per cent,