Family Planning
In the last century, family planning has been regarded as one of the greatest public health successes of all time. Birth spacing and the size of one’s family may be controlled via the availability of family planning services, leading to better health outcomes for women and their families.
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Everything You Need To Know About Family Planning
What is it?
Family Planning is a public health preventative program that provides inexpensive, voluntary family planning services for those who want to have a family.
Family planning aids a person in determining how many children they want to have, as well as how long it will take for each kid to be born. More than 214 million women of reproductive age who do not intend to get pregnant in the developing world do not utilize a contemporary contraceptive technique, according to a new study.
When it comes to family planning, birth control is the most important tool in the box. There are several advantages to having a family in the first place. Some examples include the avoidance of pregnancy-related health concerns for women (such as reducing infant mortality), preventing HIV/AIDS, empowering people, reducing the number of pregnancies among teenagers, and helping to reduce population growth.
Abortion-related hazards may be reduced with family planning or contraception. Many fatalities of mothers and children may be prevented by using family planning or contraception to avoid undesired pregnancies.
Services under Family Planning
- Contraception services
- Testing and counseling for pregnancy
- A wide range of pregnancy-related services, including preconception care
- Infertility treatment
- Prevention education, counseling, testing, and referral for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV
- Services for the treatment and prevention of STIs
- Patient education and counseling are part of a wider range of reproductive health treatments
- Exams of the breasts and the womb
- Screening for cancers of the breast and cervix
Importance
All pregnancies reported by women as unplanned or mistimed are considered to be unintended. Nearly half of the 6.1 million pregnancies that occur each year in the United States are unplanned. Pregnant women who have unwanted pregnancies face a wide range of health and economic problems. In 2010, the cost of unplanned pregnancies was estimated at $21 billion in the United States (this figure includes costs for prenatal care, labor and delivery, post-partum care, and 1 year of infant care).
Unwanted pregnancies may have the following consequences for women:
- Delays in the initiation of prenatal treatment
- Reduced probability of breast-feeding
- Maternal depression is more likely to occur
- Physical violence is more likely during pregnancy
Unplanned pregnancies may lead to birth abnormalities and low birth weight, among other problems. It is more probable that children of unwanted pregnancies would have poor mental and physical health as children and have lower educational levels and more behavioral problems as adolescents.
When to start Family Planning
When it comes to a woman’s health, preconception care has been characterized as an array of measures aimed at helping her avoid or better manage existing medical issues to increase her chances of becoming pregnant in the future. This may dramatically lower the risk of premature delivery, resulting in birth abnormalities and diseases.
Every primary care appointment for women of reproductive age should include preconception care elements. Preconception care should not be confined to a single appointment with a health care practitioner but should instead be a series of treatments tailored to each patient’s specific requirements. Patients should be encouraged to create a reproductive life plan as part of comprehensive preconception treatment. Whether you are thinking about having children in the future but aren’t sure if or when you want to start trying for a baby, a reproductive life plan may help. In addition, healthcare providers must inform their patients about the influence that their reproductive life plans have on their ability to make informed decisions about their health care, including the use of contraception.
How is the Family Planning treatment done?
LARCs (long-acting reversible contraceptives) are effective for a long period. A five- to the ten-year-old intrauterine device and a three- to five-year-old implant are the two varieties of LARC on the market. Contraceptives that do not need daily or monthly reminders are described as “fit and forget” contraception.
The pill and the Depo Provera injection are examples of hormonal contraception, and Progesterone-only contraceptives and combination oral contraceptives are available. This daily medication has a near-perfect success rate in preventing pregnancies. It is necessary to take the Depo Provera injection every three months to get the desired effects. In addition to preventing pregnancy, condom use by both men and women is beneficial.
When it comes to family planning, abstinence is the only method to ensure that you won’t become pregnant. A person must refrain from any kind of sexual activity, whether vaginal, or oral, or anal. This is called abstinence. Because breastfeeding reduces the risk of pregnancy before a kid is six months old, mothers who breastfeed are less likely to get pregnant. Using this information helps in planning a family.
To avoid unwanted pregnancies, one might engage in outercourse, a sexual activity that does not entail any vaginal contact. During a woman’s menstrual cycle, vaginal rings are put into the vagina and remain there for three weeks. As a result of their release of estrogen and progestin, the vaginal rings provide effective birth control and prevent pregnancy.
Intrauterine devices and implanted rods are other kinds of natural family planning. Both men and women may be permanently sterilized using a variety of ways. As a means of family planning, tubal ligation for women and vasectomy for males restrict the man/woman from extending their lineage.
Conclusion
The primary goal of Family Planning is to prevent unplanned pregnancies, which contributes to the poor health of women and children worldwide. With it, couples can be certain that they have the time and resources they need to raise their kid to their full potential. Besides these, Family Planning contributes to the country’s overall development by ensuring sustainable population increase.