Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.6, No.19, 2016 1 A Sociological Study about the Adoption of Contraception Methods and Their Effects on the Married Females’ Health in Rural Areas of Tehsil Dera Ghazi Khan-Pakistan Dr. Muhammad Ali Tarar 1 * Iram Khan 1 Dr. Irshad Arshad 2 Niyyar Munir 2 Dr. M. Babar Akram 3 Sumaira Bano 4 Tahira Shamshad 4 Malik Altaf Hussain 4 Dr. Nisar Hussain 5 Dr. Saira Akhtar 6 Dr. Naima Nawaz 6 Muzaffar Husssain Salik 7 1. Department of Sociology, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 3. Department of Sociology, Islamic International University, Islamabad 4. Department of Sociology, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 5. Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab, Pakistan 6.Department of Rural Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan 7. Pir Mhar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan Abstract Population is growing rapidly & adoption of FP has been neglected by Govt. of Pakistan due to lack of services, awareness and education, traditional believes, employment & misconception. Mostly people think that the use of contraception methods is against the nature and Islam and is also harmful for health. So present study was designed in rural areas of Tehsil Dera Ghazi Khan in 2013 to investigate the knowledge level, adoption of contraception as well as to perceived positive and negative effects of contraception methods on the health of married females in rural community. 160 rural married females were interviewed to find out their demographic features; utilization of contraception and its side effects on their health in tehsil Dera Ghazi Khan. The data was analyzed by using Uni-variate (frequency distribution and percentage) and Bi-variate analysis (Chi square and Gamma Statistics) was carried out. Predominating age categories were <15 and 16-20 years, 45.6% were illiterate, and 55.6% had good mutual understandings. More than one fifth (26.2%) had 1-2 pregnancies, 59.4% had sometimes heard about contraceptive methods while 84.4% had favorable attitude towards adoption of contraception methods. Whereas 58.1% had sometimes used contraceptive methods, 31.9% got information about contraceptive methods from relatives. In adoption of different contraception methods during the life span, respondents reported both types i.e. modern injections (60.6%), spermicides (50.6%), and in traditional methods i.e. withdrawal (6.2%); adoption of herbs (5.7%) and 44.4% had faced positive effects while 19.4% faced negative effects whereas 36.2% of the respondents had both type of effects (positive/ negative) on their health after the adoption of FP methods during reproductive span. Bi-variate analysis showed positive relationship between desired of family size and utilization of contraception, Freedom of decision making vs utilization of contraception methods and mutual understanding of spouse vs adoption of contraception method. There was a need to bring positive change in societal attitude for the utilization of family planning. Keywords: FP Methods, Contraception adoption, effects, Religious opinion, Decision making, Rural Females, Socio-economic status Introduction World’s total population is 7,062,819,900 and it is increasing day by day with 1.096% growth rate per annum. Pakistan’s population is increasing with 2.03 % growth rate and it reaches to 180.71 million during the year 2011-2012 while this growth rate was 2.05 % in 2010-2011. Although this growth rate is decreasing but still the growth of population is surprising. The total fertility rate of Pakistan is 3.4 children in 2011-2012. This situation creates economic problem in Pakistan and females are more vulnerable to health risks. Due to these situations there is a need to control the population, so there is need to use contraceptive methods to decrease fertility rate 2, 9 . Contraception is essential issue for many developed and under developed countries in the world 2, 17, 22 . It is being widely used, because females want to avoid unwanted pregnancies without obstacles 21 . It is also the key issue of South Asian region spatially for Pakistan that has a large population. Due to social, cultural, and religious mentality the adoption of contraception is low as compare to other countries. Some family planning programs are launched to control the population in Pakistan but these programs are not working properly because use of contraception methods is considered not well in Pakistani society therefore population is increasing rapidly 17 . Different types of contraception methods are available to control the birth rate throughout the world. Permanent and some contemporary birth control methods such as sterilization implant, surgical sterilization, hormonal methods i.e. the mini pill, vaginal ring, the patch, contraceptive sponge, diaphragm