This paper examines the basis for a much closer integration between population programmes and health care services in urban centres of Ghana. Based on a sample interview survey of 1,000 currently married women carried out in Accra in 1982, a discriminant analysis shows that the use of family planning services is determined by the respondent’s level of education and migration status and by the use of pre and postnatal health services. However, these same factors tend to lower the duration of breastfeeding and postpartum abstinence. For instance, women who have used health services are much less likely than other women to breastfeed for longer durations irrespective of their socioeconomic status since medical personnel tend to discourage breastfeeding. The findings of the study focus attention on the fact that effective integration of family planning activities into the health care system demands more than a simple policy directive to achieve its goal. Suggestions for achieving effective integration are made. Ref.
