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  • Title: More access to contraception? Russian city surveyed.
    Author: Dorman S.
    Journal: Popul Today; 1993 Mar; 21(3):5, 10. PubMed ID: 12286202.
    Abstract:
    In 1991-1992, a survey of 650 15-to-67-year-old women in St. Petersburg, Russia, revealed a need to improve reproductive health care services. It followed a 1989 prototype survey. 57% of the women were married and 19% had never married. 48% had 1 child, 24% had at least 2 children, and 28% had no children. Even though 76% either had 1 child or none, 81% wanted to have at least 2 children. Housing and finances were leading reasons for limiting births. 91% of all women and 75% of 50-to- 24 year-old=-women had experienced at least 1 pregnancy. The mean number of children and abortions for women 25 years old and above were 1 and 3, respectively. Just 14% had never undergone an abortion. A small minority had had over 20 abortions. Despite the high frequency of abortions, most women (83%) considered abortion a threat to a woman's health. In fact, 40% believed abortion was responsible for deterioration of their health. 32% had conducted self-abortions in a nonmedical environment. (The abortion rate was about 2 times that of the birth rate in Russia.) The last pregnancy of 80% of all women (87% of those 25 years old) was unplanned. 32% of women who had ever been pregnant experienced an adolescent pregnancy. Respondents did not trust medical personnel and resented the obligation to pay bribes for even routine care. Just 1% thought that reproductive health care was satisfactory. Medical directors of Women's Consultation Clinics considered patients to be irresponsible and uninformed about family planning. In 1989, 12% of women considered contraception to be readily available, while in 1992, 38% did. This was mainly due to government allocation of funds to import IUDs and condoms. For example, prior to 1990, a clinic serving 4300 women inserted a mean number of 300 IUDs/year, but after 1990 it inserted almost 900. Further, abortions fell from 1150 to 800. In 1992, the most available contraception was condoms. Shortage of foreign exchange limits oral contraceptives, IUDs, and condoms.
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