Publish Date: January 2018
Author: MCSP
Prevention of unwanted and closely spaced pregnancies substantially reduces maternal, infant, and child mortality. Postpartum family planning (PPFP) plays an important role in strategies to prevent these pregnancies in the first year after childbirth. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the integration of family planning (FP) as an essential component of antenatal care (ANC) and care after birth or abortion. Opportunities to integrate FP information, counseling and services exist throughout the health system—at both the community and facility levels and across the continuum of pregnancy, birth, and postnatal care. ANC is an ideal platform for FP education and counseling because ANC clients interact with health care providers on a regular basis throughout pregnancy and can prepare to initiate an FP method after childbirth. This brief discusses the new WHO recommendations, which offer an opportunity to make FP education and counseling during ANC a higher priority.
This brief is also available in A4.
Leveraging Antenatal Care to Increase Uptake of Postpartum Family Planning: A Key Time for Counseling - 2 (1329 downloads )
