Blog# 5 Contraception

In what ways could someone's culture, beliefs and practices influence contraceptive decision making? Provide thorough examples based on some of your readings and your own personal experiences. What were the beliefs about birth control/contraception within your own home and family?

It's true that in some places people's daily life activities are directly associated with the place's cultural norms and values. Family planning and acceptance of contraception are still a taboo in many cultural beliefs around the world. Even though today's 21st century has developed different types of educational materials to teach people about the use of contraception, some cultural beliefs still play a big role of whether to accept the use of contraception or not and the use of contraception is still seen as a sin in many cultures all around the world. For example, In many Muslim cultures , the use of contraception is forbidden because they believe that reproduction is a god gifted thing which shouldn't be ruined by the use of contraception. The Roman Catholic church still forbids the use of barrier methods of contraception which is seen as a some kind of abortion. So, i think our cultural values, beliefs really influence our decision of using contraception. In my family the use of contraception was discussed very often because both of my parents were also the teachers in my school and i got that teaching environment all the time whether it's in school or home. I still remember my mother helping out those uneducated women to know about the use of different types of contraception and their advantages. Sometimes the situation used to become very tensed as their husbands try to force their women not to follow the teachings that my mother used to give. I grew up in a small society of a North Eastern Nepal where people were so religious and in some cultures the use of any means of contraceptives were seen as a sin at that time. But, after some years their religious beliefs and norms were changed due to excessive learning environments about the family plannings and the use of contraceptives. So, i think misconceptions still do exist in many society where the birth control and the use of contraception are forbidden but we can change that by the means of education and other learning environment.