What are other benefits of family planning

As well as saving lives, family planning has other benefits:

• Mothers and babies will be healthier, because risky pregnancies are avoided.
• Fewer children means more food for each child.
• Waiting to have children can allow young women and men time to complete their education, get a better job and contribute more to their families and communities.
• Fewer children can mean more time for yourselves and your children.

Family planning can also help you and your partner enjoy sex more, because you are not afraid of unwanted pregnancy. And some methods have other health benefits. For example, condoms and spermicides can help protect against the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. Hormonal methods can help with irregular bleeding and pain during a woman’s monthly bleeding.

All of the family planning methods found in this chapter are used safely by millions of women. In fact, these methods are much safer than pregnancy and childbirth.

Sources

• Burns, A. A., Niemann, S., Lovich, R., Maxwell, J., & Shapiro, K. (2014). Where women have no doctor: A health guide for women. Hesperian Foundation.
• Audiopedia ID: en020404