Eight Reasons Why Family Planning Is Important
Wanting to have a family for yourself is an entirely natural desire. But before you add new members to your existing family. You need to ask yourself some hard-hitting questions, mainly if this is the right course of action. You can see the importance of family planning in a report by PRB. Globally 62% of married women use a method of family planning. Having a child is emotionally, physiologically, and financially taxing. However, with a suitable family planning method, here's how it can benefit a community:
- Improves Maternal Health. After hitting puberty, a woman can become pregnant anytime. Younger pregnancies may result in danger for the mother's health as her body may find it difficult to sustain the fetus. To avoid a miscarriage from occurring, It is best to delay having a child and using protection while engaging in intercourse. It is also essential to create gaps between successive pregnancies if an infant is already present in the house. This helps abate various pregnancy-related complications. So it doesn't take a toll on the mother's health, especially if she falls pregnant while she's actively breastfeeding her first child.
- Helps In Child Survival. In the case of early pregnancies, the child may either get miscarried or maybe a stillborn. It is essential to consult a doctor before trying for a child early. Delaying pregnancies till a woman is physically healthy may be far more beneficial for health than going for a child as early as possible. It is good to space between the children to avoid problems while delivering a premature child or a baby with low birth weight.
- Reduces Unsafe Abortions. There is an easy way to prevent pregnancies by taking a mixture of contraceptives and period delay pills. However, couples who don't use contraceptives and engage in intercourse have a high chance of conceiving at an inconvenient time. Maybe the couple isn't ready for a child yet, which pushes them to go for dangerous options such as an unsafe abortion out of a state of pregnancy.
Suppose women don't have access to safe and healthy abortion clinics within their vicinity. In that case, they may try self-aborting or seeing an unprofessional who may damage their internal organs and cause injuries that may result in death. Sometimes, the injuries may not cause death but leave lasting damage to her uterus, making it harder to conceive a baby in the future.
- Prevents Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Using contraceptives such as condoms and diaphragms prevents sexually transmitted diseases. These diseases, if left untreated, are detrimental to health. If a woman who has an STI, becomes pregnant she may transmit the disease to her baby. Conditions such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, and HIV lead to a plethora of problems. The baby may catch the disease and get defected, including blindness, bone deformities, or deafness. The baby may have a stillbirth or may be born prematurely.
- Autonomy For Women. With better family planning, women have better control over their crucial life decisions. They can take advantage of their careers and pursue higher education. For some women, pregnancies are complicated and become too tedious to perform daily tasks. Therefore, planning their future pregnancies is far better for them.
They can also actively prepare their bodies when they wish to conceive by making necessary arrangements, such as ensuring exercise through each trimester and taking supplements. It also helps the family plan for the children they already have, such as finding daycare centers and schools. Or if a woman chooses to return to work or wishes to have another child.
- Promotes Economic Growth. A country also thrives when all members of the community are pitching in. Women returning to work or pursuing advancements in their field benefit the economy significantly. It is also better for the country's resources when a couple plans a child keeping their country's condition in mind.
Suppose a couple is living from paycheque to paycheque. Having a child may not be the best plan for them, as the mother will need time off from work to recover, which can cause discrepancies in the finances. In society, everything connects like a domino. When one sector is disturbed, the rest of the sectors follow suit.
When China was facing depletion of resources, they introduced a one-child policy to control the population expansion. It helped the nation focus on protecting and cultivating resources before they could have another massive population expansion.
- Protects The Environment. Global warming is a massive problem for the modern world. When the population grows in an unplanned manner, it impacts the environment. There is a need for more space to accommodate the increasing population, which would mean reclaiming the land and possible deforestation. As a result, the environment begins to deplete rapidly. Water starts becoming a scarce resource, and this affects the entire ecological pyramid. When families take care to plan families, they're slowly expanding the population in a sustainable way. This is also important because it prevents new and lethal diseases from spreading when the environment is thriving.
- It Helps Remove Stigma. Like most medical innovations, family planning is not free from myths. Many communities refuse to engage in any form of planning, fearing it would lead to infertility or use religious reasons to excuse themselves from participating. However, when organizations reach out to families attempting to plan pregnancies, they can help them make better decisions in raising a child and discussing maternal health. It helps to remove myths and the stigma surrounding family planning and the use of suitable methods.
