Indexed in : Index Medicus (IMSEAR), INSDOC, NCI Current Content, Database of Alcohol & Drug Abuse, National Database in TB & Allied Diseases, IndMED, Entered in WHO CD ROM for South East Asia. ISSN- 0301-1216 Indian J. Prev. Soc. Med. Vol. 42 No.1, 2011 A STUDY ON THE FERTILITY PATTERN OF RECENTLY DELIVERED WOMEN IN A RURAL AREA OF VARANASI A Mohapatra 1 , CP Mishra 2 , MK Gupta 3 , S Shivalli 4 , SC Mohapatra 5 ABSTRACT Research question: What is the fertility pattern of women who have delivered within the last 2 years? Objectives: (1) To study the fertility pattern of recently delivered (within 2 years) women, (2) To assess the awareness & practice of different methods of birth control among the same. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Study location: Chiraigaon Community Development Block, Varanasi Material and method: 422 women who had delivered within 2 years of the study were selected using WHO 30-cluster sampling technique (14 women from each cluster) and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Results: Almost two-thirds (65.4%) of the interviewed women had been married before 18 yrs age of which nearly half (33.6% of the total) had gauna before 18 yrs age. Twelve percent of the women had been pregnant before the age of 18 years. For women who had been pregnant for more than once, the median birth spacing was 1.8 years with 68.1% of the women having conceived within 2 years of the previous. The abortion proportion reported is 5% of all pregnancies. The contraceptive method known to the majority of the women was Oral Contraceptive Pills (80.6%) followed closely by Condoms (79.9%) while the most common ever-practiced contraception was Condoms (8.1%). The overall ‘any contraceptive method ever-used’ was found to be 18.3% Conclusion: Findings of this study amply highlights the need and scope for improvement in fertility related initiatives. Key words: Recently delivered women, cluster INTRODUCTION The need for family planning in India has been long identified and policy measures have been evoked for more than half a century now. The indicators for improvement have shown a positive reflection of concerted efforts through all these years but the remnant challenges cannot be over-looked. Understanding and assessing the fertility pattern and its determinants in India has been interesting due to inter-regional variations which manifest as demographic divides across the country. Despite legal obligations and IEC activities, girls continue to get married before they reach the prescribed age of 18 years and hence, subscribe to a multitude of pregnancy-related adverse health outcomes. With this background, the present study was taken up to profile the fertility pattern of the women who have delivered within 2 years (hence forth referred to as recently delivered women) and their contraception use. The following objectives were affixed for the study: To study the fertility pattern of recently delivered (within 2 years) women in terms of age at marriage, gauna, age at first pregnancy and abortions experienced. To assess the awareness & practice of different methods of birth control among the same _____________________________ 1,3,4 Resident, 2,5 Professor, Deptt of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi