Gachechiladze E. - From the History of Family Planning in Georgia. - Problems of Demography and Sociology. The Works of Scientific staff of the Institute of Demography and Sociological Studies. – vol. 2. – Tbilisi – 2004 – p.p. 112-120 – in Georgian.
Family planning means the limitation of childbearing process in accordance with spouses' desire with the help of contraceptive methods and means and abortion.
According to the socio-demographic studies family planning is a result of significant changes in reproductive behavior that evoke the decrease of desired number of children. Family planning in Georgia has started from the first half of XIX century.
Fertility decline and changes in family planning indexes show that the limitation of childbearing process is widespread in Georgia in XX century. The widespread of family planning is a main reason of fertility decline.
For studying the family planning process socio-demographic researches are concentrated on following problems: reproductive period, number of children in family, family planning methods.
In 1990's the duration of reproductive period that depends on age at marriage, protogenetic and intergenetic periods and age at last birth was remarkably shorter than the duration of fertility period. The analysis of duration of protogenetic and intergenetic periods showed that the limitation of childbearing process started after providing family with certain number of children.
At the end of XX century there were observed the decline of ideal number of children (3,02), desired number (2,68) and expected number (2,44) of children in family, that isn't sufficient to ensure the replacement of generation.
According to the research, held in 1996, 58,2% of married women didn't use contraceptives that made us think that the main method for limitation of childbearing was an abortion in Georgia. The last research shows that situation isn't changed and the abortion is still remained as the main method of family planning in Georgia that can lead the country to undesirable results.
The findings show that the use of contraceptives depends on the knowledge about the several methods of contraception. Since, for improving the reproductive health of population and to decrease the number of abortions (by choosing the acceptable contraceptives) it's necessary to provide society by the information that will give chance individuals and couples to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children. Also, it is advisable for population to have the information about the family planning, demographic problems and sexual education.