The spread of anti-natal knowledge and practice in Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID4928044
AuthorsJohn C Caldwell, Adenola Igun
Year1970
Volume24
Issue1
Pages21-34
Publication date1970-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopulation Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-4728 • E-ISSN: 1477-4747
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00324728.1970.10406110
PMID22073991
OpenAlexW2002684166
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited4

In March/April 1969 the Demographic Training and Research Unit, University of Ife, surveyed 8,400 respondents of both sexes to investigate their knowledge and use of anti-natal practices and the sources of that knowledge. The area sampled was a stratified cross-section of Nigeria extending inland 500 miles from Lagos. Data are analysed by age cohorts of respondents and by the date of change in knowledge or practice. It is shown that anti-natal knowledge and practice decline with distance from Lagos, that contraception is widely practised amongst the richer towns and those with a higher proportion of educated people, and to a smaller extent among farmers than restricted knowledge or means would alone indicate. Recently the spread of both knowledge and practice has been faster than could be explained by socio-economic change and has largely resulted from changing attitudes to anti-natal practice and increased discussion of the subject in the world as a whole. Within Nigeria this has been helped by rising levels of urbanization and education, which are the two major determinants of anti-natal knowledge and practice in the country. The spread of such practice has led to an increased employment of traditional anti-natal methods, but this increase is small compared with the much greater resort now being made to modern contraception and induced abortion. The mass media have been of particular importance in introducing new knowledge, while the spread of such knowledge has owed most to discussions between friends of the same sex

Abortion · Economic growth · Geography · Knowledge level · Mass media · Political science · Pregnancy · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Traditional knowledge · Urbanization · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demography · Global Maternal and Child Health · Law · Psychology

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