284 Where There Is No Doctor 2011
FAMILY PLANNING
Having the number of children you want, when you
want them, is called family planning. If you decide to
wait to have children, you can choose one of several
methods to prevent pregnancy. These methods are called
family planning methods, child spacing methods, or
contraception.
Every year, half a million women die of problems
from pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion. Most
of these deaths could be prevented by family planning.
For example, family planning can prevent dangers from
pregnancies that are:
• in young women. Women under the age of 18 are more likely to die in childbirth
because their bodies are not fully grown. Their babies have a greater chance of
dying in the first year.
• in older women. Older women face more danger in child bearing, especially if
they have other health problems or have had many children.
• too close. A woman’s body needs time to recover between pregnancies.
• too many. A woman with more than 4 children has a greater risk of death after
childbirth from bleeding and other causes.
Millions of women safely use the family planning methods described in this chapter
and on pages 394 to 397.
Choosing a Family Planning Method
On the following pages, several methods of family planning are described. Each
one works better for some people than others. Study these pages and talk with your
midwife, health worker, or doctor about what methods are available and are likely to
work best for you. As you read about each method, here are some questions you may
want to consider:
• How well does it prevent pregnancy?
How effective is it?
• How well does it protect against
HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections, if at all?
• How safe is it? If a woman has any of
the health problems mentioned in this
chapter, she may need to avoid some
types of family planning methods.
• How easy is it to use?
• How much does it cost?
• Is it easy to get? Will you need to
visit the health center often?
• Will the side effects (the problems
the method may cause) create
difficulties for you?
Family planning methods work best when both the man and the woman take
responsibility for preventing pregnancy and protecting each other from sexually
transmitted infections (STIs).
The chart on the next page shows how well each family planning method works to
prevent pregnancy and to protect against STIs. The stars in the chart show how well
each method prevents pregnancy. When a man and a woman use a method correctly
every time they have sex, the method will work better.