[Contraception before pregnancy. Evolution between 1972 and 1975 in the Rhone-Alpes region (author's transl)]

The studies was made from two enquiries carried out on women who delivered in June 1972 and 1975 in the Rhone-Alpes region. Contraception therefore dealt exclusively with birth control before a pregnancy. It is clear that contraception has developed significantly: it is practised by 48% of women who were questioned in 1975 as compared with 41% in 1972. There is also a change in the last method used between the two dates: the pill featured in only 17% of all the method used in 1972 and 45% in 1975: on the other hand coitus interruptus went down from 41% to 21%. The spread of the use of the pill is a generalised phenomenon whereas there are several categories of women who do not seem to have used, coitus interruptus less frequently. As far as the social classes are concerned, it is to be pointed out that only non-skilled working-class people have not changed their habits as far as these two methods are concerned. Contraception is practised with more and more success as a method of birth control: on the one hand the number of conceptions which occurred when the women was using a birth control method has gone down from 27% in 1972 to 15% in 1975: on the other hand 51% of those who used a birth control method stopped using it in order to have a baby, whereas in 1972 only 32% did so. Parallel with this evolution, one can point out that the number of women who have 2 or more children has gone down. On the other hand the number of conceptions before marriage and the rhythm of the way the families are constituted has not changed between the two dates.