The term ‘family planning’ is used by many people to mean contraception, and although this is certainly part of it, it’s not everything. In fact, there is a lot to family planning that many people don’t realize, even though it’s crucial that any adult engaging in a sexual relationship understands as much about family planning as possible.
It might be that the term itself is misleading. It uses the word ‘family’, after all, and since many people won’t want to start a family at that precise time, they won’t feel the need to investigate family planning – they don’t think it’s for them.
The truth is that family planning is a crucial element of life, whether you want to start a family or not. It’s there to help plan to have a family, that’s true, but it’s also there to help prevent starting a family if the timing is not right or you’re not in a relationship you feel would be conducive to family life. With that in mind, read on to find out more about the importance of family planning and why it’s something everyone should learn more about.
Family Planning Promotes Maternal Health
Having a baby places a large burden on a woman’s body. It causes a lot of strain, and it can cause health issues, some of which are permanent, so that even after the baby is born, the mother has a new health condition to deal with. Of course, most of the time, the mother is perfectly healthy, but even so, being pregnant and giving birth takes a huge toll in terms of physical and mental health, especially if the mother already has a chronic illness.
Therefore, family planning is important to ensure maternal health as much as possible. Having too many children in a short space of time can be problematic, and it’s wiser to space out pregnancies to ensure that the mother has recovered fully from the previous one. Even women who choose to have many children should still space out the pregnancies sensibly. With good family planning, this can be done so that health is made a priority.
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Family Planning Promotes the Baby’s Health
Studies have shown that closely spaced pregnancies can lead to poor health conditions for the babies, and in some cases, it has been shown to have a higher infant mortality rate. This may be because the mother’s body has yet to completely recover, and therefore is not healthy enough to provide all the growth and nutrients a developing fetus needs, for example.
By implementing family planning and spacing pregnancies out much more carefully, there is a much better chance of giving birth to a healthy baby who will develop and thrive. Not only is this good for the baby, but a healthy birth is better for the mother too. The mental and physical strain that a problem birth and an unwell child can bring should not be underestimated.
Prevent Unplanned Pregnancy
Proper family planning is the best way to prevent unplanned pregnancy, whether you are in or out of a long-term relationship. There are many reasons why a woman or a couple would not want a child, just as there are many reasons why they would. However, not wanting to start a family shouldn’t be a reason not to engage in sexual intercourse if you want to – the two activities, although of course, inextricably linked can be kept separate if family planning is used wisely.
Of course, sometimes, unplanned pregnancies do occur because no contraception is one hundred percent safe. In this case, family planning centers can help in other ways too, including abortion procedures if need be. A clinic can help in many ways, and it’s wise to speak to the experts to get a better idea of the options available to you no matter what situation you find yourself in.
Beneficial For Finances
Raising children is an expensive thing to do, and the more children you have, the more expensive it will be. For some families, having many children would be financially disastrous, which is why family planning can be so helpful.
When starting a family, it’s a good idea to look at your finances and determine how much you can afford to spend on a child. Doing this means you can work out how many children you can comfortably afford, and when you know that number, you can utilize family planning to help start your family and then prevent any future pregnancies once you’ve reached the limit of your finances. In this way, any extra strain and burden that a pregnancy might bring to an already cash-strapped family would be eliminated.
Prevents Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Again, the term family planning may be limiting and not give people the right information about what looking into this area more fully can really do. When you first hear the term, you will probably think of planning and preventing pregnancy. However, family planning can also be used to enjoy safe sex and to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or infections (STIs).
The best way to prevent STDs and STIs is to practice safe sex using contraception, including condoms (male and female). Many contraceptive techniques that are used solely for preventing pregnancy, such as the contraceptive pill or coil, will not prevent the spread of disease, and therefore, if you’re having sex with people whose backgrounds you don’t know, or with whom you’re not in a long-term monogamous relationship, using additional protection is the best idea.
Family Planning Educates People About Reproductive Health
For most people, reproductive health is a mystery. After all, it’s not something they have to think about all the time, and it only becomes important when trying to prevent or create a pregnancy.
However, the more you know about reproduction and reproductive health, the better it is for your health overall, and this goes for men and women equally. The only way to know if something is wrong is to understand how it should be right, and unless you know more about reproductive health, it will be hard to spot the signs of illness and make an appointment with a doctor. This can lead to serious consequences in the long term.
