NSO survey: 1 in 3 births in RP unplanned

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino women still have babies who are unwanted or unplanned despite a steady increase in contraceptive use in the last 30 years, according to a government survey.

One in three births in the Philippines is either unwanted (16 percent) or mistimed (20 percent), according to the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

“More than half or 53 percent of births to women aged 40 to 44 in the five years preceding the survey were unplanned, while a majority or 84 percent of such births were unwanted,” the NSO said.

The survey found that more than 30 percent of unwanted pregnancies occurred among women 35 years old and above, compared to only eight percent among mothers in the 20-24 age bracket.

“The proportion of births reported to be unwanted increases with age because older women have larger families and younger women have not yet achieved their desired family size,” the NSO 2008 report said.

However, the agency noted that these figures were lower than the findings from the 2003 NDHS where it found that 20 percent of births were unwanted and 24 percent were mistimed.

The 2008 NDHS was conducted from Aug. 7 to Sept. 27, 2008, using face-to-face interviews of 13,594 women 15 to 49 years old.

The survey also revealed that 51 percent of the married women are practicing family planning or have had a need for family planning.

It found that 34 percent of the respondents use a modern method of family planning, while 17 percent use the traditional method.

The most widely used method is the pill (16 percent), followed by withdrawal (10 percent), female sterilization (nine percent), and rhythm (six percent).

The remaining methods have few users, each being used by less than four percent of married women, the report said.

The survey is the ninth in a series of demographic and health surveys conducted to assess the demographic and health situation in the country. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)