RESUMO
PIP: This news brief presents the US President's wife's statement on the association between use of family planning and a decline in abortions worldwide. Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the Sixth Conference of Wives of Heads of State and Government of the Americas held in La Paz, Bolivia. The conference was suitably located in Bolivia, a country with the highest rates of maternal mortality in South America. Bolivia has responded by launching a national family planning campaign coordinated between government, nongovernmental, and medical organizations. Half of Bolivian women experience pregnancy and childbirth without the support of trained medical staff. Mortality from abortion complications account for about half of all maternal deaths in Bolivia. Voluntary family planning workers teach women about the benefits of child spacing, breast feeding, nutrition, prenatal and postpartum care, and safe deliveries. Bolivia has succeeded in increasing its contraceptive use rates and decreasing the number of safe and unsafe abortions. Bolivia's program effort was supported by USAID. USAID provided technical assistance and funds for the establishment of a network of primary health care clinics. Mrs. Clinton visited one such clinic in a poor neighborhood in La Paz, which in its first six months of operation provided 2200 consultations, delivered 200 babies, registered 700 new family planning users, and immunized 2500 children. Clinics such as this one will be affected by the US Congress's harsh cuts in aid, which reduce funding by 35% and delay program funding by 9 months. These US government cuts in foreign aid are expected to result in an additional 1.6 million abortions, over 8000 maternal deaths, and 134,000 infant deaths in developing countries. An investment in population assistance represents a sensible, cost-effective, and long-term strategy for improving women's health, strengthening families, and reducing abortion.^ieng
Assuntos
Aborto Induzido , Congressos como Assunto , Liderança , Bem-Estar Materno , Gravidez , Medicina Reprodutiva , Mudança Social , América , Bolívia , Comunicação , Demografia , Países Desenvolvidos , Países em Desenvolvimento , Serviços de Planejamento Familiar , Fertilidade , Saúde , Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde , América Latina , América do Norte , População , Dinâmica Populacional , Comportamento Sexual , América do Sul , Estados UnidosRESUMO
PIP: This article discusses the value of family planning programs (FPP) in improvements in maternal and child health and contribution in raising people's standard of living. Access to FFP increases the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) with fertility rates dropping. This happened in Matlab, Bangladesh where the CPR rose to 45% as opposed to only 16% in the rest of the country. FPP helps prevent high numbers of abortions and keeps maternal mortality rates. For example when Chile began its program in 1963, 3% of couples used contraception. By 1978 the CPR rose to 23% and the death rates due to abortion fell from 118 to 24/1,000,000. The World Bank states that 85 developing countries, representing 95% of the population in The Third World, now offer FPP, and this has been achieved by offering couples information and access to contraception. However, most of these FPP are still not reaching the rural populations, the retention rates are low, and the administration of services is poor. A major social problem still remains-the high incidence of adolescent pregnancies. Worldwide it has been estimated that between 25-50% of maternal deaths could be prevented by the use of contraception to avoid high-risk or unwanted pregnancies. Worldwide between 20-30% of all unwanted pregnancies end up in abortions, legal or illegal. 80% of these abortions are illegal, with an estimated 100,000- 200,000 women dying annually. FP has many additional benefits including: 1) helping to make paternity a responsibility; 2) increasing people options and alternatives; and 3) helping mothers to space their pregnancies assuring better health for themselves and their children. Their success also depends on medical, political and financial support nationally and internationally.^ieng
Assuntos
Aspirantes a Aborto , Aborto Criminoso , Aborto Induzido , Logro , Comportamento Contraceptivo , Serviços de Planejamento Familiar , Planejamento em Saúde , Mortalidade Materna , Filosofia , Prevalência , América , Comportamento , Colômbia , Anticoncepção , Demografia , Países em Desenvolvimento , América Latina , Mortalidade , População , Dinâmica Populacional , Pesquisa , Projetos de Pesquisa , América do SulRESUMO
PIP: In 1965 the National Health Service (SNS) in Chile began a family planning program with the object of reducing abortions to a minimum, reducing the number of births to multiparous women, and reducing infant mortality rates. A community that had a fairly constant population and an SNS clinic located within easy access of the populous was carefully selected to make a preliminary test of the effectiveness of the program. On the theory that education and services needed to be provided in equal measure if the program were to succeed, efforts were made to educate (mostly through talks) previous abortion seekers, as they stood a 2-5 times greater chance of having a subsequent abortion than did others.In the talks, special emphasis was placed on risks involved in induced abortion. The women were also instructed in the use of all sorts of contraceptives and costs were made as low as possible. A survey of fertility and abortion was taken prior to the initiation of the program in 1965 and was repeated in 1967. Age-specific abortion rates had dropped for all but the 15-19 group, but the only statistically significant drops occurred in the 20-24, 25-29, and 30-34 age groups. General and total abortion rates dropped by 38.1 and 39.4% respectively, both of which were highly significant. Fertility rates also dropped;the TFR was down by 20% and age-specific rates were down for all groups, though only the drops in the 30-34 and 35-39 groups were statistically significant. Fertility was, however, still high (TFR - 5.2), and infant mortality remained almost stable. The proportion of grand multiparous women was reduced from 30% to 17.5%.^ieng