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Cite	this	article	as	 Antarini,	Masfiah	S,	Fitriani	A,	Junaidi	L.	Unmet	need	to	space	and	limit	childbirth	
among	reproductive	age	women	in	Pangkalpinang	City,	Bangka	Belitung	Province,	
Indonesia.	Global	Health	Management	Journal.	2017;	1(1):	4-9.	

	

Global	Health	Management	Journal	
www.publications.inschool.id		

PUBLISHED	BY	

Original Research Article 

Unmet need to space and limit childbirth among reproductive age women in 
Pangkalpinang City, Bangka Belitung Province, Indonesia 

Antarini 1,*, Siti Masfiah 2, Ayu Fitriani 3, Lili Junaidi 4 

1 Poltekkes Kemenkes Pangkalpinang, Health Polytechnic of Pangkalpinang, Indonesia. 2 Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, 
Purwokerto, Indonesia. 3 Universitas Respati Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 4 Kantor Kesehatan Pelabuhan Semarang, Port Health 
Office of Semarang, Indonesia 

 

*Corresponding author. Email: antarini22@gmail.com    

 

ARTICLE INFO  ABSTRACT 

Article history: 
Submitted 3 May 2017 
Accepted 17 June 2017 
 

 
Background: Population growth has become one of priority problems should be solved 
in almost all of developing countries, including Indonesia. Backward, Indonesia had 
successful family planning history. However, it shows decline figures nowadays. While, 
unmet need of family planning in several regions found increased. In 2007, unmet need 
was 8.6 %, inclined to 11.4% in 2015, which is consisted of 4.5% for spacing children 
and 8.6% for limiting children. Social demography, economic, access to health services, 
family support and perception revealed have the contribution to unmet need.  
Aims: This study aimed to identify unmet need family planning due to birth spacing and 
limiting situation among reproductive age women in Pangkal Pinang City, Bangka 
Belitung Province. 
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive design. The population was 
women of childbearing age who experienced unmet need of family planning in Pangkal 
Pinang, 2016. Ninety-eight women were taken by proportional random sampling to 
participate in this study.  
Results: Research showed that the most of the unmet need for family planning were 
among 25-29 years old women. About two third (66.3%) of unmet need women occurred 
due to the willingness to space the childbirth and 33.7% willing to limit the childbirth. 
Birth spacing tended to be favored by young mothers, early marriage (1-5 years old), 
had low parity and had low education attainment. Whilst, limiting childbirth tended to 
be preferred by women with lenght marriage experience (>15 years old), had high parity, 
older mothers, and middle education level (senior high school) attainment.  
Conclusion: Both of spacing and limiting have no difference according to the economic 
situation, all of them mostly were the household wife from low-income family. Husband 
support to do not use contraception were found in both birth spacing and birth limiting. 
The study suggest to provincial health office and national family planning coordination 
board that family planning program should not just involve the wife, but husband as well 
due to their high influence in family planning decision. 
 

 
Keywords:  
Unmet need 
Family planning 
Birth spacing and limiting 
 

 

 

This article is an extension of a selected paper “Unmet need for family planning program: A situational analysis of birth spacing and limiting among 
reproductive age women in Pangkalpinang City, Bangka Belitung Province, Indonesia” published in Proceedings of the International Conference on Applied 
Science and Health (No. 1, February 2017). 
© 2017 Publications of Yayasan Aliansi Cendekiawan Indonesia Thailand 
This is an open access following Creative Commons License Deed – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
 

 

 



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INTRODUCTION 

World population data sheet 2013, reported 
Indonesia as the fifth populated nation in the world, 
consist of 249 million people and the largest among 
ASEAN countries. Total fertility rate (TFR) 
showed above average line of ASEAN countries 
(2.4). Based on Statistic Indonesia 2014, among the 
number of population in Indonesia (252.164,8 
thousand people), about 51% are female. With the 
rate of growth of 1.4%  per year (2010-2014), it is 
predicted will reach 337 million people in 2015 [1]. 

Population growth in Indonesia started to raise 
again since 2000, while it had declined in several 
previous decades before. Backward, start in 1969, 
Indonesia have been implementing family planning 
program to reduce the population growth. It 
recorded as one of the successful history worldwide 
on population program. Family planning program 
can push down the number of people. However, it 
changes, now it becomes one of the biggest 
challenge in Indonesia [1]. Rapid population 
growth effects many sectors of development in 
Indonesia. Ministry of Health and National Family 
Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN) tried hard 
to evaluate and examine family planning related 
problems [2]. 

Family planning program is an effort to limited the 
number of children spouse should have and how to 
make space for delivery. It includes contraception 
methods and family planning strategy. The basic 
principle of contraception method is to prevent 
fertilization, how to make sperm can not reach the 
egg, or how to make fertilized egg can not develop 
further in the uterus [3]. 

Succesful history of family planning program in 
Indonesia was influenced by many factors included 
family planning related knowledge, perception, 
adherence to used contraception method, religion 
support, cultures support, family support and sexual 
activity [4]. 

Government has been doing massive socialization 
related to family planning program, however 
recently there is still a huge number of unmet need. 
Unmet need is the condition when specific people, 
including childbearing age spouses, need the 
contraception but did not use the contraception. 

Based on demographic and health survey (DHS), 
the group of people included in this category is all 
fertile women who were married or living together, 
which included sexual partners active, who do not 
want more children or wanting to delay the next 
child in at least two years but did not use any of the 
types of contraceptives. 

The number of unmet need in Indonesia reached 
11.4% which is consisted of 4.5% for spacing 
children and 6.9% limiting children. This number 
increased compared to previous number 8.7% in 
2007. Contraception used prevalence increased 
from 50% to 62% in 1991 to 2012, however, in last 
decade it just increased 1%.  The percentage of 
married women who need family planning services 
in Indonesia is currently around 73%, however, it 
just about 85% of them has been fulfilled. The 
reason for the high unmet need mostly related to the 
socio-demographic and economic factor, access 
to the services, quality of supply and service 
planning, lack of information, conflicts in the 
family and society, lack of information, low support 
from husband, families and communities, also 
perception of the risk of pregnancy [5].      

Unmet need number varies between provinces, in 
2007 the lowest unmet need was 3.2% in Bangka 
Belitung and the highest 22.4% in Maluku. In 2012 
Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey lowest 
position was Central Kalimantan 7.6% and the 
highest was Papua 23.8% [5]. On the 
contrary, Bangka Belitung became one of high 
unmet need province in 2015. The number of 
spouses in childbearing age was 251,304 people. Of 
those, 205,072 people were acceptors 
active, and 28,093 people (11.1%) did not 
participate in family planning due to the willingness 
to delay having children and willingness to stop 
having children [6]. Unmet need for family 
planning in Bangka Belitung spread in six districts, 
particularly in the urban area. One of the high 
numbers is Pangkal Pinang district. This study 
aimed to explore unmet need family planning due 
to birth spacing and limiting situation among 
reproductive age women in Pangkal Pinang City, 
Bangka Belitung Province. 

	  



Global	Health	Management	Journal,	2017,	Vol.	1,	No.	1		 6
	 		

Table 1. Distribution of Respondent based on 
characteristics of respondents toward Unmet Need in 
the  Pangkalpinang City 2016 

Characteristics N Percentage 

Age Group (year)    
15-49 
20-24 

0 
9 

0 
9.2 

25-29 33 33.7 
30-34 17 17.3 
35-39 18 18.4 
40-44 10 10.2 
45-49 11 11.2 
Total 98 100 

Length of Married   
1-5 years 30 30.6 
   6-10 years 27 27.6 
11-15 years 15 15.3 
>15 years 26 26.5 
Total 98 100 

Education   
No Education 1 1 
Unpassed primary school 6 6.1 
Primary School 19 19.4 
Junior High School 14 14.3 
Unpassed Senior High School 3 3.1 
Senior High School 50 51 
Bachelor  5 5.1 
Total 98 100 

Job   
Civil servant 3 3.1 
Private employee 5 5.1 
Labor  1 1 
Trader 24 24.5 
Housewife 64 65.3 
Others 1 1 
Total 98 100 

Income (IDR)   
<1 million 17 17.3 
1-2 million 54 55.1 
2-4 million 24 24.5 
>4 million 3 3.1 
Total 98 100 

Parity   
0 10 10.2 
1-2 66 67.3 
3-4 20 20.4 
>4 2 2 
Total 98 100 

 

 

 

 

METHODS 

This type of research was a cross-sectional 
descriptive design. A sample of 98 
respondents used the criteria that 
reproductive age women between 15-49 
years, women who need to space their birth (birth 
spacing) and unwanted children anymore (birth 
limiting). This study was to identify unmet need 
family planning due to birth spacing and limiting 
situation. Data were analyzed using descriptive 
statistics were used to report the results in the form 
of frequency distribution and percentage (%) of 
each item. The ethical clearance for the study was 
approved by the Health Polytechnic of Semarang, 
Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia.  

RESULT 

Characteristics of respondents 

From Table 1, it can be noted that the highest 
percentage of unmet need women in Pangkal 
Pinang is on range of age 25-29 years (33.7%). The 
lenght of married is not much varied, respondents 
with lenght married 5 to 10 years have a high 
percentage of unmet need (30.6%). Last education 
of respondents with unmet need was senior high 
school (51%), their work as housewife (65.3%) and 
income permonth around 1 to 2 million (55.1%). 
Most of the women with unmet need have marital 
status is married (98%) with parity 1 to 2 childs 
(67.3%).  

The highest percentage is women who unmet need 
in this study were at the age range 25-29 years 
(33.7%). Unmet need in this age range is targeted 
delay the child pregnancy. The length of marriage 
is not varied in this study, respondents with a long 
marriage between 5 to 10 years old have a high 
percentage of unmet need (30.6% and 27.6%). 
Education attainment of respondents mostly are 
high school (51%), they are the housewife (65.3%) 
with the range of income were between 1 to 2 
million rupiahs (55.1%). Almost all of the 
respondents are married (98%) and the rest of them 
have been divorced. The number of living children 
they have is about 1 to 2 children (67.3%).  

 



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Table 2. Unmet need for family planning to space and limit the childbirth across different socio-demographic situation   

Characteristic 
Unmet Need for Famili Planning 

Total 
Spacing Limiting 

N % N % N % 
Age (Year)        

Adolescent (15-24) 8 88.9 1 11.1 9 100 
Adult (25-49) 57 64 32 36 89 100 

Education       
Under Senior High School 28 65.1 15 34.9 43 100 
Senior High School/upper  37 67.3 18 32.7 55 100 

Job       
Work 19 55.9 15 44.1 34 100 
No Work 46 71.9 18 28.1 64 100 

Length of married       
1-5 years 27 90 3 10 30 100 
6-10 years 20 74.1 7 25.9 27 100 
11-15 years 11 73.7 4 26.3 15 100 
>15 years 7 26.9 19 73.1 26 100 

Parity       
1-2 59 77.6 17 22.4 76 100 
>2 6 27.3 16 72.7 22 100 

Income (IDR)       
<1 million 12 70.6 5 29.4 17 100 
1 -2 juta 38 70.4 16 29.6 54 100 
>2 juta 15 55.6 12 44.4 27 100 

Husband’s Role       
Yes 64 66.7 32 33.3 96 100 
No 1 50 1 50 2 100 

Husband’s Attitude       
Agree 59 67 29 33 88 100 
Disagree 6 60 4 40 10 100 

Discussion about Contraceptive       
Yes 59 69.4 26 30.6 85 100 
No 6 46.2 7 53.8 13 100 

DISCUSSION 

In Indonesia the number of unmet need reached 
11% of women in reproductive age, of that 4 % 
were due to spacing, and 7% for limiting childbirth. 
This figure increased compared to the previous 
survey resulted from 8.6 percent of women in 
reproductive age [5]. In fact, the prevalence of 
contraceptive use increased from 50% in 1991 to 
62% in 2012, but within the last 10 years of modern 
contraceptive use increased by only 1% only. The 
percentage of married women who need family 
planning services in Indonesia is currently around 
73% of which 85% of them have been fulfilled. If 
all requirements of planning services are met then 
contraceptive prevalence can be improved from 
62% to 73%. From the report IDHS 2012, this data 
has not changed. As many as 88% of married 
women have the unmet need for family planning 

services are almost the same as a state in 2007 
(87%), meaning that the percentage of new 
acceptors has not risen significantly 1% only [5]. 

National family planning coordination board tries to 
reduce this number of unmet need, because it 
revealed as one of leading causes of maternal 
mortality (75%). This phenomenon occurred 
globally as well. Indonesia's maternal mortality is 
estimated to increase to 359 / 100,000 live births 
and if unmet need is not immediately addressed, 
then this figure will be higher. Women of 
reproductive age who do not use birth control 
have high risk to get pregnant and has a great 
opportunity to experience complications during 
pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. This can be 
caused abortion due to unwanted pregnancy, 
pregnant spacing, and gave birth too frequent, 
complications during pregnancy, childbirth and 
postpartum. 



Global	Health	Management	Journal,	2017,	Vol.	1,	No.	1		 8
	 		

The results shows a decreasing pattern of the need 
for birth spacing after reaching the age of 30 years, 
and for the purpose of limiting childbirth reach the 
peaked at age 35-44. This is in accordance with the 
framework analysis of the relationship of age 
with unmet need for family planning that status of 
unmet will be high in younger women and tend to 
decrease as the age getting older, it looks like 
inverted U-shaped [7]. 
  
Situational analysis of unmet need to space 
childbirth in Pangkal Pinang 

This study found that about two third (66.3%) of 
unmet need women in Pangkal Pinang occurred due 
to willingness to space the childbirth. Birth spacing 
tended to be favored by young mothers. A previous 
study found that younger women were more likely 
to desire to add children [8]. They still tend to have 
a willingness to have children, however they want 
to space the birth. The study conducted in Kenya 
established that older women tend to 
have unmet need for child spacing whereas a 
woman with a bigger family size would necessarily 
seek for family planning to limit child bearing and 
that there is no favorable association between 
unmet need for family planning and level of 
education [9]. As age increases, a woman especially 
from rural area’s propensity of having unmet need 
for family planning to space child 
bearing decreases. This trend is so consistent that 
younger women are bound to experience higher risk 
of unmet need for contraception to space births. As 
Wangila points out, as women grow older by age, 
they tend to achieve their desired family sizes [10]. 
Moreover, older women tend to have a reduced 
coital frequency, and therefore may not need 
contraception to space their births [11]. 

Unmet need for space childbirth in women in 
Pangkal Pinang revealed mostly from early 
marriage (1-5 years old) women, had low parity and 
had low education attainment. It is similar to other 
research, Ojaka found that total unmet need is 
higher among women with a larger number of living 
children and among those who have primary level 
of education. Woman’s level of education can 
predict her level of unmet need for contraception to 
space [12]. This is because of the lower the level of 
education, the greater the chances that such a 
woman would have unmet need for spacing. Benard 

reports that women with primary education are 
most likely to have unmet need for spacing [13]. 
However, the level of unmet need reduces with a 
rising in educational level, such that individuals 
with post-secondary education are least likely to 
experience unmet need to space childbirths. It is 
arguable that education imparts knowledge on the 
importance of using contraception to space 
childbirths. Moreover, education presents a woman 
with the opportunity to interact with other women 
from diverse cultural and geographical bounds, 
from which they are able to acquire new 
information and skills including use of family 
planning to space births.  
  
Situational analysis of unmet need to limit 
childbirth in Pangkal Pinang 

This study reported that unmet need to limit 
childbirth tended to be preferred by women 
with length of marriage experience (>15 years old), 
had high parity, older mothers, and middle 
education level (senior high school) attainment. 
This research also found both of spacing and 
limiting have no difference according to the 
economic situation, all of them mostly were the 
household wife from the low-income family. 
Husband support to do not use contraception were 
found in both birth spacing and birth 
limiting. Ojakaa reports that working women are 
more likely to report method-related reasons for not 
using family planning methods and are less likely to 
report opposition to family planning than women 
who do not work. It is clear that women who are 
currently employed are less likely to experience 
unmet need to space compared to women who are 
not employed [12]. Casterline et al. argue that 
women who are employed have the capacity to 
make the decision and to purchase contraceptives to 
space their births [14]. Moreover, it is arguable that 
currently employed women would need adequate 
time to concentrate more on their employment-
related activities than family matters, as such would 
opt to space their births [15]. Coupled with the 
difficulty a woman faces in acquiring maternity 
leave, many women would not want to frequently 
seek for maternity leaves from their employers, thus 
would want to have wider spaces between their 
births. 
 
 



9																								 	 	 	 	 Global	Health	Management	Journal,	2017,	Vol.	1,	No.	1	
	

	
	

CONCLUSION 

The percentage of married women ages 15-49 who 
unmet need is higher in women aged 25-29 years, 
who have children 1-2, has been married five (5) 
years or more, secondary education (high school), 
income of 1-2 million , does not play a role in 
household decision-making. Most women of 
childbearing age who never discussed the unmet 
needs of family planning with their husbands 
(86.7%) and the attitude of their husbands agree to 
family planning (89.8%). Both of spacing and 
limiting have no difference according to the 
economic situation, all of them mostly were the 
household wife from low-income family. Husband 
support to do not use contraception were found in 
both birth spacing and birth limiting. The study 
suggest to provincial health office and national 
family planning coordination board that family 
planning program should not just involve the wife, 
but husband as well due to their high influence in 
family planning decision. 

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS 

None declared. 

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