The increasing recognition that millions of women and children die every year as a result of the poor health of the mother coupled with inadequate care before, during, and after delivery, has highlighted the importance of seeking women's views of health services in order to contribute to improving their health. The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on women's views of health services ...

BACKGROUND Mali has one of the world's lowest contraceptive use rates and a high rate of unmet need for family planning. In order to increase access to and choice of quality family planning services, Marie Stopes International (MSI) Mali introduced social franchising in public-sector community health centers (referred to as CSCOMs in Mali) in 3 regions under the MSI brand BlueStar. PROGRAM DE...

OBJECTIVE To ascertain the perspectives of family-planning service providers in eight sites in China on the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried young people. METHODS Data were drawn from a survey of 1927 family-planning workers and 16 focus group discussions conducted in eight sites in China in 1998-99. FINDINGS Family-planning workers recognized the need to pr...

This study aims to explore and examine the conjectures surrounding the utilization of family planning services among currently married couples of childbearing age in Renk County. This study has adopted a qualitative method to collect data on factors affecting the utilization of family planning services through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, in rural and urban areas of Renk Cou...

BACKGROUND Although women usually obtain family planning services during their reproductive years, their need for comprehensive preventive services that promote wellness beyond reproductive health is often ignored. COMMUNITY CONTEXT The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sought to improve the general health of women and reduce their risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes by integra...

Triangulation of research methods was used to investigate family planning practices among Swazi women, men and adolescents. Seventeen focus group interviews were conducted. The findings of focus group interviews were used to develop a structured interview schedule for conducting quantitative research. Both the qualitative and quantitative research results revealed that value of children, lack o...

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of care in government family planning clinic services in Colombo District. DESIGN Descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTINGS Government family planning clinics in the Colombo District. STUDY SAMPLE The study was conducted in 23 government family planning clinics in the Colombo District selected through stratified sampling. 593 women visiting these clinics ...