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Family planning
Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Factors that may influence family planning decisions include marital status, career or work considerations, or financial circumstances. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.
Other aspects of family planning—aside from contraception—include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and management, and infertility management. Family planning, as defined by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, encompasses services leading up to conception. Abortion is another form of family planning, although it is not a primary one.
"Family planning" is sometimes used as a synonym or euphemism for access to and the use of contraception. However, it often involves methods and practices in addition to contraception. Additionally, many might wish to use contraception but are not necessarily planning a family (e.g., unmarried adolescents and young married couples delaying childbearing while building careers). "Family planning" has become a catch-all phrase for much of the work undertaken in this realm. However, contemporary notions of family planning tend to place a woman and her childbearing decisions at the center of the discussion, as notions of women's empowerment and reproductive autonomy have gained traction in many parts of the world. It is usually applied to a female-male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have or control pregnancy timing (also known as birth spacing). Family planning has been shown to reduce teenage birth rates and birth rates for unmarried women.
It is sometimes clarifying to separate the term "family planning" from "family planning program". A 2017 textbook by Poston and Bouvier defines the former as "attempts by couples to regulate the number and spacing of their births", and the latter as "a systematic effort, often government-sponsored, to provide the information, supplies, and services for modern fertility control". The programs, used by many developing countries between 1950 and 1995, are controversial due to coercion, primarily in China, India, and Peru. A report from the World Bank Group concluded that "for the most part, the family planning program 'experiment' worked: policy and program interventions contributed substantially to the revolutionary rise of contraceptive use and to the decline in fertility that has occurred in the developing world".
In 2006, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a recommendation, encouraging men and women to formulate a reproductive life plan, to help them in avoiding unintended pregnancies and to improve the health of women and reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes.
There are multiple benefits to family planning including spacing births for healthier pregnancies, thus decreasing risks of maternal morbidity, fetal prematurity and low birth. There is also a potential positive impact on the individual's social and economic advancement, as raising a child requires significant amounts of resources: time, social, financial, and environmental. Planning can help assure that resources are available.
For many, the purpose of family planning is to make sure that any couple, man, or woman who has a child has the resources that are needed in order to complete this goal.[dubious – discuss] With these resources a couple, man or woman can explore the options of natural birth, surrogacy, artificial insemination, or adoption. In the other case, if the person does not wish to have a child at the specific time, they can investigate the resources that are needed to prevent pregnancy, such as birth control, contraceptives, or physical protection and prevention.
There is no clear social impact case for or against conceiving a child. Individually, for most people, bearing a child or not has no measurable impact on personal well-being. A review of the economic literature on life satisfaction shows that certain groups of people are much happier without children:
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Family planning
Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Factors that may influence family planning decisions include marital status, career or work considerations, or financial circumstances. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.
Other aspects of family planning—aside from contraception—include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and management, and infertility management. Family planning, as defined by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, encompasses services leading up to conception. Abortion is another form of family planning, although it is not a primary one.
"Family planning" is sometimes used as a synonym or euphemism for access to and the use of contraception. However, it often involves methods and practices in addition to contraception. Additionally, many might wish to use contraception but are not necessarily planning a family (e.g., unmarried adolescents and young married couples delaying childbearing while building careers). "Family planning" has become a catch-all phrase for much of the work undertaken in this realm. However, contemporary notions of family planning tend to place a woman and her childbearing decisions at the center of the discussion, as notions of women's empowerment and reproductive autonomy have gained traction in many parts of the world. It is usually applied to a female-male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have or control pregnancy timing (also known as birth spacing). Family planning has been shown to reduce teenage birth rates and birth rates for unmarried women.
It is sometimes clarifying to separate the term "family planning" from "family planning program". A 2017 textbook by Poston and Bouvier defines the former as "attempts by couples to regulate the number and spacing of their births", and the latter as "a systematic effort, often government-sponsored, to provide the information, supplies, and services for modern fertility control". The programs, used by many developing countries between 1950 and 1995, are controversial due to coercion, primarily in China, India, and Peru. A report from the World Bank Group concluded that "for the most part, the family planning program 'experiment' worked: policy and program interventions contributed substantially to the revolutionary rise of contraceptive use and to the decline in fertility that has occurred in the developing world".
In 2006, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a recommendation, encouraging men and women to formulate a reproductive life plan, to help them in avoiding unintended pregnancies and to improve the health of women and reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes.
There are multiple benefits to family planning including spacing births for healthier pregnancies, thus decreasing risks of maternal morbidity, fetal prematurity and low birth. There is also a potential positive impact on the individual's social and economic advancement, as raising a child requires significant amounts of resources: time, social, financial, and environmental. Planning can help assure that resources are available.
For many, the purpose of family planning is to make sure that any couple, man, or woman who has a child has the resources that are needed in order to complete this goal.[dubious – discuss] With these resources a couple, man or woman can explore the options of natural birth, surrogacy, artificial insemination, or adoption. In the other case, if the person does not wish to have a child at the specific time, they can investigate the resources that are needed to prevent pregnancy, such as birth control, contraceptives, or physical protection and prevention.
There is no clear social impact case for or against conceiving a child. Individually, for most people, bearing a child or not has no measurable impact on personal well-being. A review of the economic literature on life satisfaction shows that certain groups of people are much happier without children: