Innovative Mexican Health Policy Increases Contraceptive Use

Talking to pregnant women about using family planning is an effective strategy for increasing their contraceptive use after they give birth, according to a study examining a change in Mexico’s national guidelines for prenatal care. The policy change requires providers to offer family planning counseling during all prenatal care visits at public clinics. The study analyzed surveys of more than 2,200 women who had recently given birth in urban Mexico and found that women who had received family planning counseling during prenatal visits were more than twice as likely to use a contraceptive method after they gave birth as women who had not received this information.

The article, “Family Planning Advice and Postpartum Contraceptive Use Among Low-Income Women in Mexico,” by Sarah L. Barber of the University of California, Berkeley, appears in the March 2007 issue of International Family Planning Perspectives.

Also in this issue:


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In Tanzania, where the need for contraception is high, only 1% of men choose vasectomy. Feeling as though they could not afford to support more children and concerns for their wives’ health were among the main motivations for seeking a vasectomy cited in “Factors Affecting Vasectomy Acceptability in Tanzania” by Arwen Bunce of Family Health International, et al. The authors analyzed qualitative data from vasectomy clients and their wives, potential vasectomy clients, and women who had had tubal ligations. Reasons for avoiding vasectomy included misconceptions and concerns about the safety and effects of vasectomy, a lack of available providers and the possibility of wanting children in the future.


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Global and regional family planning efforts have increased over the past decade in the developing world, according to “Family Planning Programs in 2004: New Assessments in a Changing Environment,” by John Ross of Constella Futures, et al. The study asked 1,037 experts in 82 developing countries to rate the success of national family planning programs based on 30 features in four categories: quality of family planning policies, range of available services, evaluation system and accessibility of family planning supplies. Despite improvements, in every region the staff ranked the quality of services as only “mediocre.” Among the challenges cited by the in-country staff were funding cuts and increasingly decentralized governments.


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Although the number of Bangladeshi women using contraceptives is rising, the country’s fertility rate remains high. To explain this mystery, Unnati Rani Saha of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research and Radheshyam Bairagi of Fordham University, analyzed demographic information from two sources, the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey and the Matlab Demographic Surveillance System. In “Inconsistencies in the Relationship Between Contraceptive Use and Fertility in Bangladesh” the authors conclude a decrease in breast-feeding and increased use of less-effective contraceptive methods both played a role in the country’s persistently high fertility rate.