By Rodrigo S. Victoria Naval, Biliran (31 October) -- Married women in this part of the country have practiced family planning methods as the latest results of the 2005 Family Planning Survey showed that 49.4% or approximately five out of ten women who got married in 2005 in Eastern Visayas were practicing it based on a document released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The data on the 2005 Family Planning Survey (FPS) Results is one of the official statitistical data presented in a forum today attended by the different representatives of local and national government agencies the province of Biliran sponsored by NSO-Biliran headed by Rose Marie V. Lumbre, Provincial Statistics Officer.

Based on the highlights of results of the 2005 Family Planning Survey, 29.9% of married women practiced modern family planning methods while 19.6% practiced the traditional methods of family planning.

It is also reflected in the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) in Eastern Visayas in 2005 that women who belong to ages 15-49 years old practiced family planning methods and that only 30% of the married women of the previous year were practicing modern family planning methods.

The same document also showed that there was an increase in the use of family planning methods among married women in Eastern Visayas in 2005 as it recorded a contraceptive prevalence rate of 49.6% compared to only 46.3% in 2004.

The data on the 2005 nationwide CPR revealed that 49.3% of married women in the country in 2005 and 2004 used any contraceptive method, 36.0% in 2005 and 35.1% in 2004 used any modern contraceptive method and 13.2% in 2005 and 14.2% in 2004 used traditional contraceptive method.

Here in Eastern Visayas, 49.45% of married women in 2005 and 46.7% in 2004 used any contraceptive method, 29.9% in 2005 and 31.7% in 2004 used any modern contraceptive method and 19.6% in 2005 and 14.6% in 2004 used any traditional contraceptive method.

In the over-all picture of the CPR in the country based on the 2005 NSO Family Planning Survey, Cagayan Valley of region 2 recorded the highest CPR with 58.4% of married women used any contraceptive method and 51.7% used any modern contraceptive method while the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) posted the lowest CPR with 15.9% of married women used any contraceptive method and only 11.2% used any modern contraceptive method.

The document also provides the percent distribution of currently married women who used current contraceptive method mix used in region 8 in 2005 as follows: other methods-0.6%, male condom-0.8%, injectables-2.1%, IUD-3.2%, ligation female sterilization-8.7%, calendar rhythm periodic abstinence-8.9%, withdrawal-10.4%, pill-14.6% and no method-50.6%.

It can be noted also in the percent distribution of current contraceptive mix used that the use of pill and withdrawal are the most popular contraceptive methods used in Region 8.

The document also shows that the percentage of currently married women not using contraceptive method in the country was 50.7% in 2005 and 2004 while about 50.6% of currently married women in 2005 and about 53.7% in 2004 were non-users of contraception in Region 8.

It also indicated the various reasons for non-use of contraception with its percent distribution in Eastern Visayas as follows: wants child-18.7%, reasons relating to exposure to conception-31.8%, opposition to use-4%, lack of knowledge-3%, method related reasons-33% and others-9.6%.