Tagged: family planning

  • January 22, 2014

    Dual protection for my well-being: A story from Nepal

    I am a native of Kaski District, near the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal. I grew up in a large family with my parents and six siblings. I got married at the early age of 14 when I was still studying in grade five. I had four happy years with my husband until he began drinking heavily. His drunken rages were accompanied by physical abuse. I tried to withstand the abuse, hoping it would subside. Unfortunately, it did not. As the abuse increased, I left him and moved back in with my parents.

    My family was not well-off. Adding another mouth to feed was a burden for them. Because I was young and could take care of myself, I moved to the lakeside city of Pokhara, where I started working as a dishwasher for a local restaurant. After some time, I noticed that co-workers with the same pay as me had significantly better lifestyles. They wore expensive clothes and had extra money to spend, while I was barely making ends meet. When I asked them how they were able to live so well, they said they were all involved in sex work. Enticed by the glamour of extra money, I soon got involved in sex work too.

    A few months later, my husband returned, wanting to mend our relationship and start fresh. He said he had given up his old ways, and I accepted his request. We moved in together and started working as daily wage laborers. I stopped the sex work.

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  • November 14, 2013

    Family Planning and HIV: New Evidence That Integration Works

    Written by
    Ward Cates, Distinguished Scientist and President Emeritus, FHI 360
    Rose Wilcher, Technical Advisor, Research Utilization, FHI 360

    A version of this post originally appeared on The Huffington Post. Reposted with permission.

    An AIDS-free generation. Eliminating pediatric HIV infections and keeping mothers alive. Providing 120 million more women with more convenient choices of effective contraceptives to avoid unintended pregnancies.

    At this week’s International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), we are examining the latest evidence on integrating family planning and HIV service delivery. It shows that stronger linkages between family planning and HIV programs are critical to helping us realize these ambitious goals for global health.

    A small but growing number of HIV prevention, care and treatment programs offer women a range of contraceptives, along with counseling about family planning and safe pregnancy. The aim of these programs is to save lives by supporting the fertility choices of women living with HIV.

    For women with HIV who want to have children, preconception planning, good prenatal care and emergency obstetric care are crucial to ensure safe pregnancies and healthy outcomes. Closely spaced pregnancies are more likely to lead to adverse outcomes — such as low birth weight, premature birth, infant death and maternal death — and HIV infection compounds that risk. Compared to HIV-negative women, women living with HIV are almost twice as likely to die in childbirth.

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  • November 13, 2013

    Expanding the Contraceptive Armamentarium

    Written by
    Laneta Dorflinger, Distinguished Scientist and Director of Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360
    Kate Rademacher, Technical Advisor, FHI 360
    Markus Steiner, Senior Epidemiologist, FHI 360

    Armamentarium. It’s a big word. It’s what we in the U.S. like to call a fifty-cent word. An armamentarium refers to the full range of resources that are available to tackle a problem, often in the arena of health care.

    Today, we have an unequivocal need to expand the contraceptive armamentarium for women around the world.

    In some cases, this means expanding access to existing, underutilized family planning methods. In too many settings, women do not have adequate access to a full range of options, including long-acting and permanent contraceptive methods. Barriers to access include frequent stock-outs of commodities; a lack of adequate health care facilities or trained staff to administer contraceptives, especially in rural areas; prohibitively expensive client fees; a lack of comprehensive, accurate information for clients; a provider bias against the provision of long-acting methods to some women; and opposition from family members or community institutions.

    This week, over 3,000 program implementers, health care providers, researchers, faith-based leaders, donors and policymakers gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the third International Conference on Family Planning. The theme of the week-long event is “Full Access, Full Choice.” The organizers explain that this is more than just a conference; it is part of a movement to garner commitments globally to implement evidence-based solutions targeting the persistent barriers to access that women and men face every day.

    In addition to identifying effective service delivery and policy approaches to increase access to existing methods, we must also take advantage of this moment in Addis to make a long-term commitment to expand the contraceptive armamentarium to include new, innovative methods. The basket of family planning methods available has remained largely unchanged for several decades. There are gaps in the method mix that, if filled, could result not only in increased uptake of contraceptives by women, but also in improved continuation rates by better meeting individuals’ needs and desires.

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  • November 11, 2013

    The award-winning power of Mobile for Reproductive Health

    Written by
    Trinity Zan, Technical Officer, FHI 360

    FHI 360’s Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH) project has been nominated for a prestigious 2013 Katerva Award, which recognizes “the most promising ideas and efforts to advance the planet toward sustainability.” This nomination adds to the considerable recognition that this innovative mHealth information service has already received. In June of this year, m4RH was one of ten recipients of the first African Development Bank eHealth Awards. Just a year earlier, Women Deliver 50! selected m4RH as one of the top 10 innovative technology programs supporting women and girls.

    The Katerva Award nomination highlights m4RH’s innovative packaging of reproductive health information and behavior change components in a single mobile phone technology. Using mobile phones, m4RH disseminates family planning information to the general public, as well as information on the nearest clinic that offers these services. One of the few text-messaging services globally that provides family planning information as a means of education and behavior change communication, m4RH has revolutionized the concept of informed choice in the provision of family planning information. With m4RH, any person with a mobile phone can access standardized, essential and comprehensive information in simple language. One user said, “m4RH is using terms you can understand, it has clear knowledge on what you want to know. It is simple to understand, simple language that everyone can understand.” Given that more than 85 percent of global citizens have mobile connectivity, the potential impact of this simple service is truly exciting.

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  • November 7, 2013

    Why family planning matters in the post-2015 development agenda

    Written by
    Ward Cates, Distinguished Scientist and President Emeritus, FHI 360
    Tricia Petruney, Senior Technical Officer for Global Health, Population, and Nutrition, FHI 360

    The sun is setting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2015, the world will shift its focus toward a new development agenda. We know that family planning improves the health and well-being of women and families around the world. Now, as the next-generation goals expand the focus from social and human development to also include economic and environmental objectives, we should not underestimate the positive ripple effects of family planning across all three areas.

    Let’s first remind ourselves of family planning’s connection to all eight MDGs. Family planning: generates wealth and reduces hunger (MDG 1); prolongs education (MDG 2); empowers women and girls (MDG 3); saves infants (MDG 4); improves maternal health (MDG 5); prevents pediatric HIV (MDG 6); reduces pressure on the environment (MDG 7); and promotes global partnerships (MDG 8).

    Moving beyond 2015, the three health-related MDGs are likely to be condensed into one goal (Ensuring Healthy Lives). It is reassuring to see that “ensuring universal sexual and reproductive health and rights” is among the five sub-targets proposed within this goal. Moreover, exciting new support for family planning has been generated by passionate champion Melinda Gates and through global movements like Family Planning 2020. This promising momentum will not realize its full potential, however, without bold, outside-the-box approaches that reach people with family planning information and services. Given family planning’s wide-ranging benefits, we must now strengthen support for it in development sectors beyond health.

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  • October 2, 2013

    Women and girls: Beyond 2015

    Written by
    Albert J. Siemens, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

    We know what we can achieve.

    And we know what needs to be done.

    We know that improving access to family planning can reduce maternal and child mortality. Moreover, as long as women are unable to negotiate the number and spacing of their children, gains will be limited. We know that exclusive breastfeeding provides an infant the best start in life. Yet, evidence shows that a child born to a mother who has had access to quality education, especially secondary education, has a greater chance of surviving to see her fifth birthday than a child whose mother has no education. In countries around the world, we have reduced dramatically the incidence of HIV. Yet, gender violence and sexual exploitation will need to be addressed as part of the solution if we are to halt the spread of the disease.

    Last week, the United Nations General Assembly debated the post-2015 agenda, and it has never been more clear that women and girls must be top of mind in the global development discussion. Only when we transform unequal gender norms will we be able to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. This means taking a broader approach than what we have done in the past by integrating gender concerns and putting women and girls front and center in every post-2015 priority.

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  • July 24, 2013

    Save a life: Vote for innovative Mobile for Reproductive Health program

    Written by
    Kelly L’Engle, Scientist, FHI 360
    Heather Vahdat, Associate Scientist, FHI 360
    Stacey Succop, FHI 360 Research Associate, Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, FHI 360

    Degrees recently featured a post “Family planning and text messages: How mobile phones can save lives” from Kelly L’Engle, an FHI 360 scientist, that highlighted Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH), a text-message-based health communication program that provides lifesaving information about family planning methods to anyone with access to a mobile phone.

    The m4RH team is now very excited to be considered as a finalist for funding through Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development (Round III). A DevelopmentXChange event taking place in Washington, DC, July 29–31 represents the final stage of the funding competition, and the public showcase will feature displays of the projects for each finalist. The showcase will also feature live and online voting for a People’s Choice Award, which will be considered in final funding decisions.

    m4RH needs your votes!

    To vote for m4RH for the People’s Choice Award in person, attend the showcase from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31st at the Ronald Reagan Building (1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004).

    To vote for m4RH for the People’s Choice Award online, please visit http://savinglivesatbirth.net/summaries/248 (you must register to vote).

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  • July 12, 2013

    Reducing unmet need for family planning — one woman at a time

    Written by
    Trinity Zan, Senior Technical Officer, FHI 360
    Kate Rademacher, Senior Technical Officer, FHI 360

    Albertine,* a 34-year-old mother of five, was determined to get a long-acting family planning method. Because she lives in a remote part of Benin, a country of around 9 million in West Africa, she needed to travel many kilometers in the hot sun with her youngest child on her back to reach a health facility that provides contraceptives. Although she lives in an area where less than 1 percent of women use a modern family planning method, a community health worker had counseled and referred her to the health facility using a mobile phone-based tool (a service provided through the PRISE-C project, which is supported by University Research Co., LLC’s Center for Human Services and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development).

    Once she reached the health facility, Albertine insisted on getting what she called “the five-year method,” the two-rod Jadelle implant that is effective for five years of continuous use. She waited until the late afternoon — when the day’s immunization services were complete — before the midwife could see her. In a scene not uncommon in rural settings, Albertine lay across a small exam table and nursed her son on her right side while the midwife swabbed her left arm, injected the anesthesia, positioned the trocar and inserted the rods one by one. When the insertion was complete, Albertine smiled, took her implant card, and said she would be back in five years for another one!

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  • June 19, 2013

    PROGRESS: Empowering women for a brighter future

    For more than 40 years, FHI 360 has played a pioneering role in increasing the availability, acceptance, safety, effectiveness and use of high-quality contraceptive methods throughout the world. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s PROGRESS project, FHI 360 works to improve access to family planning methods and services among underserved populations in selected countries. PROGRESS builds capacity in research and research utilization by strengthening both the supply of and the demand for program research results, as well as by refining contraceptive technologies and services. In this video, Project Director Dr. Baker Ndugga Maggwa describes how PROGRESS has empowered women in countries around the world.

  • June 4, 2013

    Family planning and text messages: How mobile phones can save lives

    Written by
    Kelly L’Engle, Scientist, Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, FHI 360

    The numbers on maternal and child mortality around the world are staggering. Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. A notable 99 percent of these maternal deaths occur in developing countries, where over 220 million women lack access to effective contraception and family planning services. Statistics indicate that if even half that number, or 120 million of those women, had adequate access to family planning information, the lives of 3 million children would be saved.

    In recent years, many people have dedicated themselves to bridging the gap between this sizeable problem and a workable solution. And, as it turns out, answers have come in the form of something as common as a mobile phone. With more than three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants having mobile connectivity, millions of women can benefit from information delivered through what has become a standard 21st century way of communicating: text messages.

    It was the growing use of mobile phones and text messaging in developing countries that prompted FHI 360 to develop innovative ways to use technology to improve family planning services. In 2008, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, FHI 360’s Program Research for Strengthening Services (PROGRESS) project started developing Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH), an opt-in text message-based health communication program that provides information about family planning methods to anyone who wants it who has access to a mobile phone.

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