Rationale of Family Planning

Birth Control

• Access to effective methods of birth control is an important component of family-planning services. A healthy relationship between two partners generally includes periodic sex. Having sex may result in pregnancy. Helpful family planning should allow you access to safe and efficient methods of birth control. An ideal form of birth control should be easy to use, have minimal side effects, reduce transmission of disease and be easily reversible. Family-planning workers may distribute condoms, fit a woman for an IUD or give her birth-control pills.

Family Size

• Family planning can help you limit the size of your family. Families with more children may struggle financially and emotionally. Parents may not be able to provide each child with adequate resources such as access to educational opportunities. A family-planning worker can help you decide how large you would like your family and help you find methods to achieve that goal.

Birth Spacing

• Most doctors recommend allowing at least a year to two years between pregnancies. Proper spacing can help the woman recover from a difficult pregnancy, help increase bonding with her children and made sure the woman can care for her already existing children.

Empowerment

• Access to family-planning methods can help empower women. A woman who can control her ability to bear children and decide exactly when she would like to have them is someone who can make long-term choices about her life. If you have the right to make decisions about your reproductive choices you will feel empowered to make decisions in other areas of your life. A woman who can have children when desired can complete more years of schooling and prepare to earn more money over the course of her lifetime.

Sustainable Population Growth

• Family planning policies can help national leaders make better long-term decisions. Uncontrolled population may lead to civil unrest in third-world countries if population growth increases while economic growth remains stagnant. A reduction in family size can help preserve agriculturally important areas in more developed, first-world nations as the need for housing decreases. Decreased need for land can help increase farm yields. Countries such as India and China with large populations and scarce farmland benefit by decreasing reliance on imported foods. Aquifers can retain more water in countries with large deserts such as those in Northern Africa or Central Asia that might otherwise face water shortages.