Family planning in Malta

The crude birth rate has dropped dramatically in Malta¹ over the post-war period, from 36·0 per 1,000 population in 1948 to 17·1 in 1971. A drop of this magnitude is not uncommon² although it rarely occurs so fast.     

Family planning in Africa

The population growth rates and population policies and programs in African countries are summarized. Individual attention is given to Algeria, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Gabon, Zaire, Botswana and the Republic of South Africa. In addition, cultural and educational obstacles to family planning programs in Africa are briefly examined.     

Family planning in India]

India, one of the 1st countries to develop family planning, had a 19.9% decline in its birth rate from 1965-80. This, however, is not adequate in degree or speed. India's 1st private family planning clinic was established in 1925. A government sponsored family planning clinic was built 5 years later. By the early 1950s, governmental support for family planning included 6 5-year plans (1951-83), the target of which was to limit the birth rate to 25/1000 by 1984, and 21/1000 by 2001. A mortality rate of 9/1000 by 2001 was also targeted. By 1979, there were 51,972 Health Centers and Stations in rural areas, all manned by 2-3 physicians, and 50-80 support staff. In urban areas, there were over 1900 family welfare centers. But these do not meet the needs of the entire populace. As early as the 1950s incentives were given to those practicing birth control (e.g., free birth control operations, or priority in housing and jobs). A system of fines was instituted in 1976 for those refusing to participate in family planning, resulting in an increased use of contraceptives. For the years 1956-81, 80,000,000 women used some form of birth control. The percentage of married women practicing birth control jumped from 12% in 1970 to 28% in 1981. Of those successful in family planning, 20.2% were sterilized. But the rate of effective use of birth control varies greatly from area to area, ranging from 1% to 35%. Family planning work in India is hindered by a complex political system, religious beliefs, traditional customs, and illiteracy. By 2000, India's population might increase by 40% to 961,000,000.     

Family planning and fecundity

Abstract A computerized probability model of family-building, FERMOD, is described and then utilized in an investigation of relations between family planning and fecundity as applying to white couples of the contemporary United States. Models of this type that formulate reproductive performance as a stochastic process permit one to explore relations that are not directly observable and in this manner to secure at least partial answers to questions not subject to investigation by survey research alone. Two main questions are addressed concerning the dependence of family planning success upon fecundity: (1) How quickly does spacing control deteriorate when natural fecundability is taken at progressively lower values or when the risk of pregnancy wastage is set at progressively higher values? (2) What is the distribution of unsought births among couples of average fecundity when they practise contraception with specified effectiveness and have stipulated spacing and family size goals?     

Family planning for refugees

In response to a recent influx of Vietnamese refugees and their settlement in Kai Tak camp the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPAHK) promoted family planning and supplied contraceptives. FPAHK field workers organized film shows and talks on family planning on 3 consecutive days for 4000 refugees. Most of the refugees were transferred to the Shamshuipo camp to await resettlement in foreign countries. The FPAHK have begun recruiting acceptors in that camp.     

Family planning and fertility in Tunisia

The crude birth rate for the Tunisian population in 1967–68 is estimated to be about ten percent lower than in 1961–65 although the rates are subject to a wide margin of error. Unless the birth registration system is becoming steadily worse or unless the Tunisian population has been decreasing in size, however, the birth rate has fallen; births registered in 1967 or in 1968 were fewer in number than births registered in 1964, 1965, or 1966. The downturn in the crude birth rate occurred shortly after an official national family planning program was inaugurated. Estimates of births averted by contraceptive use, however, suggest that only about one third of the decrease in the rate could be attributed to accomplishments of the program. Occurring at the same time were changes in the age structure which led to smaller numbers of women in the peak reproductive ages and changes in the social status of women which included a sharp reduction in the proportion married in the age group 15–19.     

Family planning among the Maranaos

An effort has been made to introduce population education concepts and family planning practice to the Maranaos of Lanao del Sur province in the southern Philippines. A survey conducted in 1969 revealed that an overwhelming majority were opposed to family planning, because of the belief that it ran counter to the teachings of the Koran. In 1969, Dansalan College 1st opened a maternity clinic and, subsequently, established a family planning clinic on campus, the only one of its kind in the province. Since the clinic began operations, a total of about 1370 acceptors have been recruited. The oral contraceptive is the most preferred method among the acceptors, accounting for 60%, followed by the injectable. Additionally, the college has integrated family planning and population education into its Community Service Program. Despite several years of effort by Dansalan College, however, Maranaos have failed to respond significantly to practicing family planning. College officials continue to be optimistic, recognizing that the effort will take years of motivating and education.     

Family planning operations research in the Philippines

This essay introduces an issue of the Philippine Population Journal dedicated to the presentation of the results of operations research (OR) studies undertaken for the Philippine Family Planning (FP) Program as part of a program coordinated by the Population Council which seeks to improve FP services. The concept of OR was introduced to program managers and researchers at two workshops held in 1992. Five of the seven diagnostic proposals developed during these workshops were funded and are covered in this Journal. The results of earlier OR studies conducted under the sponsorship of the UN Population Fund are also included. The concept of OR was developed to provide managers with timely answers to their everyday problems through appropriate research. OR forces social scientists to overcome prejudices against this kind of applied research and forces program managers to learn to rely on research findings instead of on hunches. OR also forces both parties to work as a team. An important intent of this Journal is to encourage the dialogue which must precede the institutionalization of OR and to indicate to social scientists and program managers that OR has a personal relevance to their work. The research reported in this Journal will contribute to the building of theories through the many convergences in the conclusions reached about such issues as home visits, suboptimal clinic conditions, inadequate provision of FP information, and the role of outreach workers.     

Family planning as preventive health measure

The link between health and family planning efforts in the Philippines goes back to the beginnings of the National Population Program. In this interview, Dr. Dumindin of the Ministry of Health (MOh) discusses the impact of family planning on health. The family planning program of the MOH, since its inception in 1970, has undergone expansion and taken new initiatives and directions to meet the changing needs of the target clientele. Family planning information, education, and motivation is provided and maintained during routine prenatal, natal, and postnatal clinic and field activities. As of January 1986, the MOH had a total of 2100 clinics--rural health units, medical centers, hospitals, mobile clinics, and special clinics--all over the country. It is estimated that the Ministry's family planning activities have averted around a million births. It is hoped to extend the coverage of the programs to areas that have not been reached before, through further community involvement, by enlisting the participation of more workers in the community, training them on integrated health and family planning services, setting up more service facilities and clinic extensions, and by improving contraceptive use-effectiveness. Hopefully, the Philippine people will become less program-dependent and more self-motivated, and they will recognize the need for birth spacing, birth limiting, and total health care--not as suggested from the outside, but coming from within themselves.     

Family planning programmes and action in Western Europe

Neo-Malthusian organisations for spreading birth control propaganda were created in many West European countries in the 1870s and '80s. But the birth control movement proper, with its provision of clinics and other means of supplying advice on contraception, began much later-generally after World War I and largely on a welfare basis, divorced from Malthusianism. Legal and other difficulties impeded progress and conditioned the nature of the movement. Since World War II, however, the relevance of birth control has come increasingly to be recognized and the movement has expanded markedly. In some countries — especially in France, West Germany and Italy — there are still legal obstacles, though ways have been found of avoiding them. But even in other countries the direct impact of birth control clinics is far smaller than might have been expected and married couples still obtain their information on contraception from other sources. In recent years the various national movements have shown a greater interest in the evaluation of their activities. As a result, the near future may see substantial changes in their structure and in the approach to their potential clientèle.     

Family planning programmes and action in Western Europe

Abstract Neo-Malthusian organisations for spreading birth control propaganda were created in many West European countries in the 1870s and '80s. But the birth control movement proper, with its provision of clinics and other means of supplying advice on contraception, began much later-generally after World War I and largely on a welfare basis, divorced from Malthusianism. Legal and other difficulties impeded progress and conditioned the nature of the movement. Since World War II, however, the relevance of birth control has come increasingly to be recognized and the movement has expanded markedly. In some countries - especially in France, West Germany and Italy - there are still legal obstacles, though ways have been found of avoiding them. But even in other countries the direct impact of birth control clinics is far smaller than might have been expected and married couples still obtain their information on contraception from other sources. In recent years the various national movements have shown a greater interest in the evaluation of their activities. As a result, the near future may see substantial changes in their structure and in the approach to their potential clientèle.     

Family planning and population control in developing countries

This essay aims at a critical analysis of the major assumptions of the family planning movement and their implications for population and development policy in the less developed countries. A neo-Malthusian perspective, in which a reduction of the current high rates of population growth is considered to be a necessary condition for economic development in the less developed countries, is dominant among professionals in family planning. Population control has come to be regarded as a kind of“leading sector” in the development process. The position taken in this paper is that the contention that fertility reduction is crucial to short term economic development is not substantiated empirically and represents a distorted view of the economic development process. Nor is there good evidence that demographic modernization can move far ahead of other aspects of modernization. Skepticism about the success of family planning tends to lead to advocacy of alternative methods of population control which are generally beyond the economic, administrative, and political capacities of the less developed countries and are sometimes repressive in tone. The family planning movement, in overstressing the independent contributions of fertility reduction programs, has tended to underplay conditions such as improved health, lowered mortality, and altered opportunity structure which make these contributions possible at all.     

Family planning for new mothers in the Philippines

From November 1997 to February 1998, a survey was conducted to evaluate postpartum family planning (FP) services in the Philippines. Data were gathered from records at 86 clinics in 28 provinces and from interviews with 338 FP providers and 3452 clients who began to use FP within 6 months of delivery. Only 7% of women began using FP within 6 months of delivery, and most postpartum attention was devoted to child care issues. Among the women surveyed, most resumed sexual intercourse at 2.4 months postpartum and experienced a return of menses at 4.4 months postpartum despite breast feeding for 6.2 months. The most commonly recommended method to space births was the IUD followed by the injectable contraceptive. Very few providers recommended use of barrier methods. The results indicate that many breast-feeding women are receiving hormonal contraceptives too soon and that IUD insertion may not be occurring at the ideal time postpartum. While a significant percentage of providers recommended use of the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) and 16% of the women relied on it, the providers lacked sufficient understanding of LAM. In addition, many women switched or discontinued methods. The study led to the recommendations that postpartum FP services be promoted as an essential part of maternal-child health care and that FP providers receive improved training about contraception and LAM.     

A Family planning survey in four Delhi villages

A family planning attitude survey was conducted in four villages near metropolitan Delhi. Information was obtained through questionnaires from 455 currently married females of reproductive age: Of the women interviewed, 50 per cent were aware of family planning, 19 per cent had knowledge of a method and only 3 per cent used birth control methods. The method most commonly practised was prolonged lactation. Of the women interviewed, 253 were willing to learn about family planning; they said there was little opposition from their family members. These women thought that a family should have four children, and spacing between them should be roughly four years.     

Family planning communication between spouses in Sri Lanka

Drawing on data from a national follow-up survey of 2310 currently married women aged 15-49 conducted in Sri Lanka in 1985, this study examines patterns of family planning communication between spouses, social and economic factors related to those patterns, and the consistency between spouses in their responses to questions about family planning attitudes and practice. The results of the analysis indicate a high degree of family planning communication between spouses in Sri Lanka. The communication, however, varied according to couples' number of living children and to wives' age, education, place of residence, religion, and work status. Multivariate logistic regression generally confirms that older women, those with little or no education, those living on tea estates, and Muslims were less likely to communicate with their husbands on family planning matters than were women in other age, education, residence, and religion categories. These findings suggest the existence of social and cultural obstacles to communication between spouses about family planning matters in Sri Lanka. Among the 577 pairs of spouses whose answers were compared for consistency, a large proportion of wives reported hearing about male contraceptive methods directly from their husbands, and a large proportion of husbands reported hearing about female methods from their wives. These findings are a reminder that both spouses are potentially important sources of information about contraception.     

Family planning in choiseul province,Solomon Islands

The results presented are from a rural prevalence survey on family planning in Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands. Married women aged 15–49 years with at least one living child and married men whose wife met the same criteria, provided data on knowledge, attitudes and practices of contraceptive use. Fifty one per cent of the female sample were using some form of contraception, 26 per cent reversible and 25 per cent non-reversible methods. Sixty-five per cent of men claimed that they or their spouse were using a method of family planning. Tubal ligation was the most common currently used method (25 per cent in the female survey). Desired family size was four for both males and females. Knowledge and approval of family planning was high, with 83 per cent of females and 81 per cent of males knowing of at least one method. Problems in accessing information and services for family planning include cultural and logistical constraints. Religious affiliation was the major variable affecting knowledge, use and approval of contraceptive methods. Nearly a quarter of the sample lived further than two hours travel time from the nearest health clinic supplying contraceptive methods. These clinics often have only an intermittent availability of supplies. A strong interest in family planning was demonstrated by both respondents and service providers.     

Family planning services and Population Research Act

The Senate Human Resources Subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator Alan Cranston has completed its work on the Family Planning Services and Population Research Amendments of 1973 (S. 1708) and has referred the bill to the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee. Right-to-Life activists are zeroing in on committee members in hopes of amending the bill to prohibit federal funds for sterilization and continued research on abortifacient drugs. If such provisions were to be approved, it would prohibit men from obtaining vasectomies with federal assistance and eliminate what has become a most popular birth control method for couples who have reached their desired family size. Such a prohibition would be especially discriminatory of low income males who cannot afford to finance a vasectomy through the private health care system. Banning use of IUDs by federal family planning agencies could also interfere with valuable cancer research and the treatment of such ailments as asthma and duodenal ulcers. The Senate Labor Committee needs to be fully advised as to the dangerous implications of these provisions and of the public opposition to their enactment. Vocalize your opposition today by urging the committee to exclude such amendments from the legislation they send to the Senate. The committee members are: Chairman: Williams, New Jersy; Randolph, West Virginia; Pell, Rhode Island; Kennedy, Massachusetts; Nelson, Vermont; Mondale, Minnesota; Eagleton, Missouri; Cranston, California; Hughes, Iowa; Hathaway, Maine; Javits, New York; Dominick, Colorado; Schweiker, Pennsylvania; Taft, Ohio; Beall, Maryland; and Stafford, Vermont.     

Family planning and economic development in Shifang County]

According to Marx, population either hinders or expedites economic development. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Shifang County's population grew unchecked. In the 1960s its annual rate of population growth was higher than the national average. Because the growth of material goods was insufficient in supporting the increase in population, the national economy suffered. In 1977, of those Shifang families in debt to the production brigade, over 80% were multiple children families. Some of these families owed over 1300 yuan after 10 years. Obviously such families cannot be counted on to expand the economy or to increase family incomes. Between 1971 and 1981 when Shifang County began family planning, the average annual rate of growth was lower than the national average. At the same time, material production gradually matched population reproduction, expediting economic development. If, with the current age structure (32.19% are aged 0-15 years; 4.95% are over 65 years; average age is 28.41 years), each family has only 1 child, then the rate of natural growth from 1981-2000 will be 3.6% annually. A yearly decrease in population would enable the County to build up pension funds, save on food, maintain the current standard for acreage allotment and expand accumulated capital.