Family planning

Family planning is the planning of when to have children,[1] and the use of birth control[2][3] and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education,[3][4] prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections,[3] pre-conception counseling[3] and management, and infertility management.[2]

Family planning is sometimes used in the wrong way also as a synonym for the use of birth control, though it often includes more. It is most usually applied to a female-male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have and/or to control the timing of pregnancy (also known as spacing children). Family planning may encompass sterilization, as well as abortion.[5]

Family planning services are defined as "educational, comprehensive medical or social activities which enable individuals, including minors, to determine freely the number and spacing of their children and to select the means by which this may be achieved."[4]

Contents

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Purposes

Raising a child requires significant amounts of resources: time,[6] social, financial,[7] and environmental. Planning can help assure that resources are available.

Health

Waiting until the mother is at least 18 years old before trying to have children improves maternal and child health.[8] Also, if additional children are desired after a child is born, it is healthier for the mother and the child to wait at least 2 years after the previous birth before attempting to conceive (but not more than 5 years).[8] After a miscarriage or abortion, it is healthier to wait at least 6 months.[8]

Modern methods

Some families use modern medical advances in family planning. For example in surrogacy treatments a woman agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for another couple or person.

In sperm donations, pregnancies are usually achieved using donated sperm by artificial insemination (either by intracervical insemination or intrauterine insemination) and less commonly by in vitro fertilization (IVF), usually known in this context as Assisted reproductive technology (ART), but insemination may also be achieved by a donor having sexual intercourse with a woman for the sole purpose of initiating conception. This method is known as natural insemination (NI).

There is generally a demand for sperm donors who have no genetic problems in their family, 20/20 eyesight, with excellent visual acuity, a college degree, and sometimes a value on a certain height and age.[9][10]

Finances

Childbirth and prenatal health care cost averaged $7,090 for normal delivery in the US in 1996.[11] US Department of Agriculture estimates that for a child born in 2007, a US family will spend an average of $11,000 to $23,000 per year for the first 17 years of child's life.[6] (Total inflation adjusted estimated expenditure: $196,000 to $393,000, depending on household income.)[6]

Planning ahead has always been imperative in affecting the outcome of life-changing situations for everyone, which most certainly applies when it comes to pregnancy. Nearly fifty percent of the pregnancies nationwide each year is unplanned and the occurrence is far more prevalent among women under the age of 25 or with low income status. Lack of financial and emotional preparation often derives from unplanned parenthood that subsequently leads to a serious burden to the surrounding family members. Optional government aid became the only hope for many who are financially broken. Therefore, for women who are sexually active and have no intentions for parenthood, birth control pills offer a simple and effective deterrent to unplanned pregnancy that can adversely affect both family and society.

Birth control

With assertions of overpopulation, there have been asertions that birth control is the answer. Birth control is techniques used to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

There are a range of contraceptive methods, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. Any of the widely recognized methods of birth control is much more effective than no method. Behavioral methods that include intercourse, such as withdrawal and calendar based methods have little up front cost and are readily available, but are less effective in typical use than most other methods. Long-acting reversible contraceptive methods, such as IUD and implant are highly effective and convenient, requiring little user action. When cost of failure is included, IUDs and vasectomy are much less costly than other methods.

Policy

The world's largest international source of funding for population and reproductive health programs is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The main goals of the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action are:

The World health organization (WHO) and World Bank estimate that $3.00 per person per year would provide basic family planning, maternal and neonatal health care to women in developing countries. This would include contraception, prenatal, delivery and post-natal care in addition to postpartum family planning and the promotion of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections.[12]

China

China's one-child policy forces some couples to have no more than one child. China's population policy has been credited with a very significant slowing of China's population growth which had been higher before the policy was implemented. It has come under criticism that the implementation of the policy has involved forced abortions and forced sterilization. However, while the punishment of "unplanned" pregnancy is a fine, both forced abortion and forced sterilization can be charged with intentional assault, which is punished with up to 10 years' imprisonment.

Hong Kong

See also: Two-child policy

In Hong Kong, the Eugenics League was found in 1936, which became The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong in 1950.[13] The organisation provides family planning advice, sex education, birth control services to the general public of Hong Kong. In the 1970s, due to the rapidly rising population, it launched the "Two is Enough" campaign,[13] which reduced the general birth rate through educational means.

The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong's national family planning association,[14] founded the International Planned Parenthood Federation with its counterparts in seven other countries.[14]

India

Iran

Ireland

The sale of contraceptives was illegal in Ireland from 1935 until 1980, when it was legalized with strong restrictions, later loosened. It has been argued that the resulting demographic dividend played a role in the economic boom in Ireland in the 1990s (the Celtic tiger) was in part due to the legalization of contraception in 1979 and subsequent decline in the fertility rate.[15] In Ireland the ratio of workers to dependents improved due to lower fertility but was raised further by increased female labor market participation.

Pakistan

In agreement with the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Pakistan pledged that by 2010 it would provide universal access to family planning. Additionally, Pakistanโ€™s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper has set specific national goals for increases in family planning and contraceptive use. [16]

The Philippines

Singapore

United States

Title X of the Public Health Service Act,[17] is a US government program dedicated to providing family planning services for those in need. But funding for Title X as a percentage of total public funding to family planning client services has steadily declined from 44% of total expenditures in 1980 to 12% in 2006. Medicaid has increased from 20% to 71% in the same time. In 2006, Medicaid contributed $1.3 billion to public family planning.[18]

See also

Organizations

International

National

References

  1. ^ "Mission Statement". US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Population Affairs. http://www.hhs.gov/opa/about/mission/index.html. 
  2. ^ a b Family planning - WHO
  3. ^ a b c d What services do family planning clinics provide? - Health Questions - NHS Direct
  4. ^ a b US Dept. of Health, Administration for children and families
  5. ^ See, e.g., Mischell DR. "Family planning: contraception, sterilization, and pregnancy termination." In: Katz VL, Lentz GM, Lobo RA, Gershenson DM, eds. Comprehensive Gynecology. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2007:chap 14.
  6. ^ a b c "Expenditures on Children by Families, 2007; Miscellaneous Publication Number 1528-2007". United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/ExpendituresonChildrenbyFamilies.htm. 
  7. ^ MsMoney.com - Marriage, Kids & College - Family Planning
  8. ^ a b c "Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy: HTSP Messages". USAID. http://www.esdproj.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Themes_Spacing_KeyMessages. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
  9. ^ The Genius Sperm Bank June 2006
  10. ^ Baby steps; how lesbian alternative insemination is changing the world. By Amy Agigian
  11. ^ Mushinski, M. (1998). "Average charges for uncomplicated vaginal, cesarean and VBAC deliveries: Regional variations, United States, 1996". Statistical Bulletin 79 (3): 17โ€“28. PMID 9691358. 
  12. ^ "Promises to Keep: The Toll of Unintended Pregnancies on Women's Lives in the Developing World". http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/2319. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 
  13. ^ a b History of the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong
  14. ^ a b History of International Planned Parenthood Federation
  15. ^ Bloom, David E. and David Canning, 2003, Contraception and the Celtic Tiger, Economic and Social Review, 34, pp 229-247.
  16. ^ Hardee, Karen and Leahy, Elizabeth. โ€œPopulation, Fertility and Family Planning in Pakistan: A Program in Stagnation.โ€ Population Action International. Volume 4, Number 1, 1-12. 2007.
  17. ^ US Office of Population Affairs - Legislation
  18. ^ Sonfield A, Alrich C and Gold RB, Public funding for family planning, sterilization and abortion services, FY 1980โ€“2006, Occasional Report, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2008, No. 38. http://guttmacher.org/pubs/2008/01/28/or38.pdf

External links