HIV-infected women in sub-Saharan Africa are at substantial risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Linkages between HIV and reproductive health services are advocated. We describe implementation of a reproductive health counseling intervention in 16 HIV clinics in Lusaka, Zambia. Between November 2009 and November 2010, 18,407 women on antiretroviral treatment ...

Introduction: Tanzania is among of the African countries with high maternal and child mortality rates and fast growing population. It also has high fertility rate and a huge unmet need for family planning. Contraceptive use reported to avert more than 1 million maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa due to decline in fertility rate and thus help to achieve MDG 4 and 5. Therefore, this study aime...

Longitudinal survey data from a panel of married women in Bangladesh is used to estimate the impact of a social network approach to family planning field worker communication and to test a theoretical model of behavior change that explains why women adopt modern contraceptives. Government field workers were trained to organize group discussions with women in the homes of opinion leaders located...

Recent research from Kinshasa, DRC, has shown that only one in five married women uses modern contraception; over one quarter have an unmet need for family planning; and almost 400 health facilities across Kinshasa report that they provide modern contraception. This study addresses the question: with reasonable physical access and relatively high unmet need, why is modern contraceptive prevalen...

Fertility in sub-Saharan Africa stood at 5.1 births per woman in 2005–10 (United Nations 2011), more than double the replacement level. It is not likely to decline at a fast sustained pace unless a large and growing number of couples is willing and able to use modern contraception. It is true that the ‘unmet need’ for contraception still remains high in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the wid...

OBJECTIVE To examine how much contraceptive use increases as additional methods are made available to populations. METHODS We used data estimating contraceptive use from representative national surveys and data estimating method availability from special surveys to make comparisons for 6 modern contraceptive methods, in each of 6 years: 1982, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009. To estimate meth...

BACKGROUND It is often assumed, with little supportive, empirical evidence, that women who use maternal health care are more likely than those who do not to use modern contraceptives. This study aims to add to the existing literature on associations between the use of antenatal (ANC) and post-natal care (PNC) and post-partum modern contraceptives. METHODS Data come from the most recent Demogr...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards contraceptive use and counselling among medical students in Maharashtra, India. SETTING Considerable global maternal mortality and morbidity could be avoided through the use of effective contraception. In India, contraception services are frequently unavailable or there are obstacles to obtaining moder...