IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v9y2020i11p212-d447313.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond ‘Family Planning’—Local Realities on Contraception and Abortion in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Author

Listed:
  • Seydou Drabo

    (Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, 0315 Oslo, Norway)

Abstract

Family planning has long been promoted within international health efforts because of its potential benefits for controlling population growth, reducing poverty and maternal and child mortality, empowering women, and enhancing environmental sustainability. In Burkina Faso, the government and donor partners share a commitment to ‘family planning’, notably by increasing the low uptake of ‘modern’ contraceptive methods in the general population and reducing recourse to induced abortion, which remains legally restricted. This paper presents ethnographic findings that show the complexity of family planning within the social context of women’s lives and care-seeking trajectories. It draws on participant observation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, and interviews with women with a wide range of reproductive experiences and providers of family planning services. First, the paper shows that women’s use of contraceptive methods and abortion is embedded in the wider social dilemmas relating to marriage, sexuality, and gendered relationships. Second, it shows that women use contraceptives to meet a variety of needs other than those promoted in public health policies. Thus, while women’s use of contraceptive methods is often equated with family planning within public health research and health policy discourse, the uses women make of them imbue them with other meanings related to social, spiritual, or aesthetic goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Seydou Drabo, 2020. "Beyond ‘Family Planning’—Local Realities on Contraception and Abortion in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:9:y:2020:i:11:p:212-:d:447313
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/11/212/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/11/212/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathalie Bajos & Maria Teixeira & Agnès Adjamagbo & Michèle Ferrand & Agnès Guillaume & Clémentine Rossier, 2013. "Tensions normatives et rapport des femmes à la contraception dans 4 pays africains," Population (french edition), Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), vol. 68(1), pages 17-39.
    2. Clémentine Rossier, 2007. "Attitudes towards abortion and contraception in rural and urban Burkina Faso," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(2), pages 23-58.
    3. Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer, 2002. "The lesser shame: abortion among educated women in southern Cameroon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1337-1349, October.
    4. Jaffré, Yannick & Suh, Siri, 2016. "Where the lay and the technical meet: Using an anthropology of interfaces to explain persistent reproductive health disparities in West Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 175-183.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jaffré, Yannick & Lange, Isabelle L., 2021. "Being a midwife in West Africa: Between sensory experiences, moral standards, socio-technical violence and affective constraints," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Melberg, Andrea & Diallo, Abdoulaye Hama & Storeng, Katerini T. & Tylleskär, Thorkild & Moland, Karen Marie, 2018. "Policy, paperwork and ‘postographs’: Global indicators and maternity care documentation in rural Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 28-35.
    3. Laura Bernardi & Inge Hutter, 2007. "The anthropological demography of Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(18), pages 541-566.
    4. Roch Millogo & Clémentine Rossier, 2022. "Fertility Transition in Dakar, Nairobi, and Ouagadougou Since the 1970s: An Identical Reduction at All Ages Through Modern Contraception?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(5), pages 2115-2142, October.
    5. José Ignacio Nazif-Munoz & Rose Chabot, 2022. "Mapping and assessing sexual and reproductive health policy changes over time in Colombia: measuring their impact on pregnancy terminations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Vestering, Asra & de Kok, Bregje C. & Browne, Joyce L. & Adu-Bonsaffoh, Kwame, 2021. "Navigating with logics: Care for women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in a tertiary hospital in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    7. Jaffré, Yannick & Suh, Siri, 2016. "Where the lay and the technical meet: Using an anthropology of interfaces to explain persistent reproductive health disparities in West Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 175-183.
    8. Samuel H Nyarko & Lloyd Potter, 2021. "Levels and socioeconomic correlates of nonmarital fertility in Ghana," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-13, February.
    9. Ann Garbett & Brienna Perelli‐Harris & Sarah Neal, 2021. "The Untold Story of 50 Years of Adolescent Fertility in West Africa: A Cohort Perspective on the Quantum, Timing, and Spacing of Adolescent Childbearing," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(1), pages 7-40, March.
    10. Haaland, Marte E.S. & Haukanes, Haldis & Zulu, Joseph Mumba & Moland, Karen Marie & Blystad, Astrid, 2020. "Silent politics and unknown numbers: Rural health bureaucrats and Zambian abortion policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    11. Pourette, Dolorès & Pierlovisi, Carole & Randriantsara, Ranjatiana & Rakotomanana, Elliot & Mattern, Chiarella, 2018. "Avoiding a "big" baby: Local perceptions and social responses toward childbirth-related complications in Menabe, Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 52-61.
    12. Rossier, Clémentine & Guiella, George & Ouédraogo, Abdoulaye & Thiéba, Blandine, 2006. "Estimating clandestine abortion with the confidants method--results from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 254-266, January.
    13. Solheim, I.H. & Moland, K.M. & Kahabuka, C. & Pembe, A.B. & Blystad, A., 2020. "Beyond the law: Misoprostol and medical abortion in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    14. Clémentine Rossier, 2007. "Attitudes towards abortion and contraception in rural and urban Burkina Faso," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(2), pages 23-58.
    15. Mladovsky, Philipa & Ba, Maymouna, 2017. "Removing user fees for health services: A multi-epistemological perspective on access inequities in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 91-99.
    16. Lange, Isabelle L. & Kanhonou, Lydie & Goufodji, Sourou & Ronsmans, Carine & Filippi, Véronique, 2016. "The costs of ‘free’: Experiences of facility-based childbirth after Benin's caesarean section exemption policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 53-62.
    17. Zamo-Akono, C. & Tsafack-Nanfosso, R., 2008. "Fécondité, Santé et Participation des femmes au Marché du Travail," MPRA Paper 10839, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Izugbara, Chimaraoke O. & Egesa, Carolyne & Okelo, Rispah, 2015. "‘High profile health facilities can add to your trouble’: Women, stigma and un/safe abortion in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 9-18.
    19. Aniema Atorudibo, 2021. "Marriage Norms and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries," Studies in Economics 2101, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    20. Coast, Ernestina & Norris, Alison H. & Moore, Ann M. & Freeman, Emily, 2018. "Trajectories of women's abortion-related care: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 199-210.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:9:y:2020:i:11:p:212-:d:447313. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.