REGIONAL VARIATION OF THE LENGTH OF POSTPARTUM AMENORRHEA IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Postpartum amenorrhea is the period between the end of childbirth and the return of menstruation. Use of method of family planning is poor in Nigeria due to lack of adequate information of various options available. Postpartum amenorrhea is a natural method of family planning with no side effect on mother and on the child. Regional variation of the length of postpartum amenorrhea will give insight into its adaptability as a method of family planning in different geo-political regions in Nigeria. The study was retrospective in design. Data were obtained from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2013 which involved women in their reproductive age group (N-6,705). Out of the women included in the analysis, 4,753 women were uncensored and 1.952 were censored. The estimate of the median durations of postpartum amenorrhea of women in different regions of Nigeria was calculated with 50% percentile of the distribution taken as the summary index. The end-point of the study is the return of menses. The findings of this study showed that the national median duration of postpartum amenorrhia was six and half (6.5) months for Nigerian women. The estimate of postpartum amenorrhea in Nigeria varies by region. The estimate for the South West region at 6.5 months obtained in this study was close to that of the WHO multinational study (1998) for Sagamu, South West, Nigeria where the median duration of postpartum amenorrhea of women was reported to be seven (7) months. There was no particular pattern noticed in the estimate of the duration of postpartum amenorrhea among the regions. Nationally, major factors influencing the duration of postpartum amenorrhea Nigeria are marriage, breastfeeding status, survival of the index child and nutritional status. There were statistically significant differences in the duration of postpartum amenorrhea among the geo-political regions. Regional variations should be considered in advising women on the use of postpartum amenorrhea as a method of contraceptive depending on which part of the country the women are from.