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Family Planning and Reproductive Health
Family Planning and Reproductive Health
Service providers worldwide, facing the spread of HIV/AIDS, found it
increasingly irresponsible to provide the means of family planning without
counseling clients on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and other health
issues affecting reproduction. These providers and others realized that the
ability to make responsible and informed choices about sexual and reproductive
health is both a condition and a vehicle for improving the status of women.
Governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations worldwide
affirmed in 1994 that reproductive health services should be comprehensive,
client-centered, and non-coercive.[1]
In reality, service providers in developing countries may have to choose
between providing basic services for everybody in an area or offering a broad
range of services for fewer people. They often have to make crucial choices at
the clinic level-for example, whether or not to provide IUDs where no screening
is available for reproductive tract infections. Clients' involvement is
essential, as their priorities are not necessarily the same as those of service
providers.
Comprehensive family planning and reproductive health services can include:[2]
Contraceptives
Range/choice of methods
Delayed childbirth for adolescents
Male responsibility
Attention to unmet need/demand
Research on safety/side effects
Sterilization reversal
Implant removal
Quality services
Pregnancy Care
Prenatal care
Tetanus toxoid
Iron folate/iodine supplements
Safe delivery
Access to caesarean section
Access to blood transfusions
High-risk birth screening
Transport
Complications detection/
management/referral
Postpartum care
Postpartum contraception
Breastfeeding
As a family planning method
Lactation management
For newborn/child care |
STD/AIDS Services
Prevention
Condom promotion/ distribution
Treatment/referral/ screening
Prenatal screening (syphilis)
Symptomatic case management
Adolescent treatment
Identification of high risk-takers
Policy dialogue
Data collection
Abortion-related Services
Management of complications
Post-abortion family planning
Improved sex education and family
planning services where abortion
is restricted
Infertility Services
Prevention and management
Provider Training
Technical competence
Gender sensitivity
Adolescent nutrition
Training for physicians, nurses,
midwives and traditional birth
attendants |
Counseling on:
Sex/sexuality education
Safe sex
Male support
Women's support
Parental/family support
Early adolescence AIDS/STDs
Abortion
Family planning/methods
Sterilization
Public Education on:
AIDS/STDs
Violence
Gender discrimination
Female genital mutilation
Legal matters
Nutrition
Sexual/reproductive rights
Unintended pregnancy
Smoking/substance abuse
Management Information System (MIS)
For male/female clients
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1. The International Conference on Population and
Development, held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. Information on the consensus reached
at Cairo is available from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). http://www.unfpa.org.
2. This list was compiled from documents of the
International Planned Parenthood Federation; USAID; the World Bank; UNFPA; The
International Projects Assistance League; International Women's Health
Coalition; the Older Women's League; Population Action International; the
Rockefeller Foundation; and the World Health Organization.
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