The use of contraceptives and their effect on early or unwanted pregnancy : a narrative literature review

Abstract

Contraceptives as a means of birth control has always given women in the childbearing bracket the right to choose whether to have a child or not. This however is not the case when dealing with youth and adolescents. Female youth seem to receive contraceptive use information differently. They experience major conflicting ideas regarding identity, education, employment, use, and non-use of contraceptives. The thesis sought to determine what beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes youth had on family planning and what factors affected their decisions for using birth control.

The purpose of this thesis is to promote sexual health and wellbeing of the youth. The aims for the thesis were to introduce contraceptives as a topic, identify who the youth are and outline factors affecting choices youth make in using family planning.

This is a narrative literature review thesis. Databases used included EBSCO, PubMed, Cochrane and Sage. Articles selected were relevant to the topic and had a global view, were published recently, and had to be written in English.

Findings from the study indicate that more youth are open to using birth control because it is beneficial. This is because the society is changing. There are however challenges that affect this group that may change how they look at contraception.