FAMILY PLANNING IN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES

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Abstract
Surveys were taken of five Aboriginal communities in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, in co‐operation with community organizations and using locally‐engaged Aboriginal women as interviewers. The surveys reveal a patchwork of family planning methods in use. A comparison of the attitudes of Aboriginal women towards the provision of family planning services and the activities of health services in the communities was used to examine the mechanism of decline in Aboriginal birth rates.The comparison reveals that the views of Aboriginal women largely coincide with the aims of health services but what has been achieved is somewhat different. Extreme reticence on the part of Aboriginal people about the reproductive aspects of women's lives poses serious problems for the delivery of adequate health services. While health service personnel in Aboriginal communities are attuned to the sensibilities of their Aboriginal clients, they are not always aware of the reasons for these sensibilities or of their precise nature.

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