Family Planning Family planning is a vital part of assuring healthy women, babies and families.

When women plan their pregnancies, they are more likely to seek prenatal care, improving their own health and the health of the baby. Family planning helps women and their partners have children when they are physically, emotionally and financially prepared to take on the responsibility of a child. Roughly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.1 While pregnancy intendedness is not the only factor that determines healthy outcomes for moms and babies, unintended and unwanted pregnancies do have important health, economic and social consequences. Unplanned pregnancies tend to result in lower birth weights, premature births, and higher rates of infant illness and death. The infant mortality rate in the United States is higher than 28 other industrialized nations,2 and the number of low birth weight babies has increased over the last decade.3 The rate of fetal alcohol syndrome has risen sharply, and the maternal mortality rate has not declined for 10 years.4 AMCHP has built a solid foundation in women's health by promoting best practices and conducting advocacy and education on issues related to pregnant women, new mothers and their infants. The Women's and Perinatal Health Program emphasizes disease prevention and wellness promotion throughout the primary reproductive years to ensure better birth outcomes and good health for women as they grow older. As we move forward, we aim to further strengthen our members' capacity in women's health by working to assure positive health outcomes for women regardless of intent or ability to have children, and by addressing issues such as chronic disease and injury, healthy lifestyles and health disparities. What is Family Planning? Family planning is much more than birth control. The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) supports family planning in its broadest sense. Planning for a family means making conscious and informed decisions about the initiation of sexual activity and the safe and effective use of contraceptives to time a healthy pregnancy. Comprehensive family planning should include a broad range of clinical and social options for adults and adolescents before, during and after pregnancy, such as abstinence, comprehensive sexuality education, contraception, parenting education and adoption. AMCHP believes that family planning should be a standard part of basic health care for all women of childbearing age and their partners. All adults and adolescents should have universal access to family planning services that are culturally competent and age-appropriate. AMCHP believes that all private and public health insurance should cover all FDA-approved birth control, including devices and procedures used for emergency contraception.

Comprehensive family planning also includes educating patients about future pregnancies to ensure their physical and mental health and that of their babies. Information about the importance of good nutrition, particularly folic acid, and the adverse effects of using alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy can enable women, adolescents and their partners to make decisions for a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby. Preconception counseling is integral to reducing low birth weight and infant mortality and in improving womens health. The term family planning is sometimes used interchangeably with the term birth control, although there are some differences between the two terms. While birth control is something anybody can use to prevent pregnancy, family planning is seen as something monogamous couples use to temporarily delay pregnancy. In this way, family planning is seen as a method to plan, rather than prevent, children. Family planning is seen as the responsible choice for couples who are not ready to have children in the present but may want to in the future. Family planning includes all methods of birth control, from the pill to condoms, Intrauterine Devices (IUD), injectable hormonal contraceptives, and diaphragms, caps and spermicides. Depending on the area, family planning may also refer to methods used to terminate a pregnancy or possible pregnancy, such as abortion and emergency contraception. Familyplanning may also refer to surgical sterilization methods, including vasectomies and tubal ligation; and to non-surgical methods of sterilization such as Essure. Family planning is also the term preferred by religious couples who do not approved of using artificial birth control methods to prevent pregnancy. In this case, family planning, sometimes called natural family planning, refers exclusively to techniques such as temporary abstinence, the withdrawal method, or the rhythm method, in which no outside interference is used. While family planning clinics do not favor any method over others, they are usually able to accommodate most preferences and beliefs.