house, and when it did not improve after taking the medicine they gave me, I went to the 

hospital, did a card, and saw the doctor and I was given some medicine. Since three 

months expired I have not been there again. [Wanda] 

4.6.3 Rumors 

Diana who had had two abortions (one at 14 and one at 16) said the following when she 

was asked why she did not use contraceptives: 

Because I don't have any children yet. [Diana] 

This idea was expressed by others as well, including those who had never tried a modern 

contraceptive method. The underlying rationale seemed to be that family planning methods could 

affect fertility. For example, the following girl, whose brother worked for a family planning 

organization, said, 

I know about Secure as another family planning method, but I have never used it. . . I 

want to be able to have children in the future, but I hear if you take Secure you can't have 

any more children. [Alexandra] 

Rumors reported by those who had used Secure and those who had not included the 

following:  It gives a vaginal discharge;   it is not good for your health;   it gives heart 

disease;   it makes you sick;   it can kill;   it causes you not to be able to have children in the 

future;  and  it is generally not good.  

In summary, the girls displayed a good awareness of their monthly menstrual cycle. They 

learned this partly through routine puberty instruction by female caretakers as well as through 

friends and teachers. The girls described most of their pregnancies as accidental or unplanned. 

This included the first pregnancies and often the subsequent ones. Although some girls said that 

they had a vague idea that they wanted one or two children, they were not actively trying to get 

pregnant at this point in their lives. Their strategies for preventing pregnancy tended to support 

their stated intentions of not wanting to become pregnant, but their practices were highly 

ineffective, and the girls tended to have repeat unintended pregnancies.  

The most common strategy the girls used to prevent pregnancy was periodic abstinence. 

Some parents and teachers encourage girls to practice periodic abstinence with boyfriends, but 

there was a widespread understanding that the fertile period occurred during and immediately 

before and after menstruation, and girls practiced periodic abstinence accordingly. The problem 

with this widespread understanding and practice is that it is incompatible with the biological 

understanding of ovulation and would logically cause women to use periodic abstinence in ways 

that would promote pregnancy rather than prevent it. This contraceptive strategy, rather than 

modern contraceptive methods, was especially used to prevent first pregnancies. The second 

most common strategy, besides periodic abstinence, was the use of condoms.  

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