@Ligaya19 24 September 2021

Family Planning

**Family** **planning** services are defined as "**educational**, comprehensive medical or social activities which enable **individuals**, including minors, to determine freely the number and spacing of their children and to select the means by which this may be achieved".[1] Family planning may involve consideration of the number of children a woman wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, as well as the age at which she wishes to have them. These matters are influenced by **external factors** such as marital situation, career considerations, financial position, and any **disabilities** that may affect their ability to have children and raise them. 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 include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, **pre-conception** counseling and management, and **infertility** management.[2] Family planning, as defined by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, encompasses services leading up to conception. **Abortion** is not considered a component of family planning, although access to contraception and family planning reduces the need for abortion.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**, there are many who might wish to use contraception but are not, **necessarily**, **planning** a family (e.g., unmarried adolescents, young married couples delaying childbearing while building a career); family planning has become a catch-all phrase for much of the work undertaken in this realm. **Contemporary** notions of **family planning**, however, 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 most usually applied to a **female-male** couple who wish to limit the number of children they have and/or to control the timing of pregnancy (also known as spacing children).Family **planning** has been shown to **reduce teenage** birth rates and birth rates for **unmarried** women. https://www.iomcworld.org/publications.html https://www.iomcworld.org/publications.html''''''''''''''https:/www.iomcworld.org/publications.html''''''''''''''