Is 'planning' missing from our family planning services?

Abstract

Choice is essential in providing optimal family planning method to a client. Women in the communities studied have insufficient knowledge about safe, effective and long-acting contraceptive options and therefore are unable to make a fully informed method choice. To provide family planning clients with a choice of contraceptive methods, providers must be adequately trained and equipped to provide counsel about, and offer the full range of, methods available in the public health care sector. Family planning should be appropriate and well suited to the individual’s health and fertility desires. Given their superior effectiveness rates among typical users, long-acting and permanent methods are excellent options for clients who have achieved their desired family size or for those who have recently given birth and wish to plan future pregnancies, and therefore should be promoted and available to clients as part of comprehensive family planning services.