Appraising emergency contraceptives knowledge and use among female youth corp members in Nigeria

Background Emergency Contraception EC will help forestall unintended pregnancies following an unprotected sexual intercourse or failure of regular family planning methods EC knowledge is essential for every woman in the reproductive age group especially single women who are unable to abstain from unprotected sex Nevertheless this knowledge and the utilization of this essential reproductive health product is poor among women across the globe The female NYSC member of Nigeria stand a greater risk of unintended pregnancies but little or no attention has been paid to this Objectives The present study is informed by the necessity to asses among female NYSC members rsquo knowledge and utilization of EC and come out with information that may help the public and policy makers in fighting unintended pregnancies and its consequences in Nigeria Methods self structured validated questionnaires were distributed among consenting female NYSC members systematically drawn from the Local Government Areas of Sokoto State SPSS version statistical package was used to manage the database Results of the respondents were found to have good knowledge of EC Only of this group believed it is morally alright to use EC of the respondents that confirmed being involved in an act that required EC ever used it We also found that tribe ethnicity and geopolitical zones of respondents influenced their EC knowledge c p and c p respectively Conclusion To address unintended pregnancies and the consequences among our young female graduates who stand a huge risk in this respect formal sex education advance provision of EC services and handy information strategies such as handbills on EC need be encouraged