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Family Planning Month

Annually, the month of August has been considered as the Family Planning Month. Family planning is the method of safely and effectively arranging the birth spacing of children, as well as the number of children desired in the family. Such planning is pertinent for Filipino families to attain a better quality of life.

To date, many Filipino families still lack access to modern family planning. In order to address the growing need for modern family planning, the Department of Health (DOH) developed the National Family Planning Program. The program aims to promote reproductive health and rights of Filipinos by giving them accessible information and services for safe, legal, and effective modern family planning methods. Examples of these methods include counseling, education, and contraception.

Aside from the basic interventions that the program provides, the National Family Planning Program also gives a great amount of importance to the health and well-being of mothers and their children, due to the risks that may accompany pregnancy. By providing mothers with information and services on family planning, problems such as unintended pregnancies, early childbearing, unsafe abortion, and death from early and late childbearing may be prevented. Ultimately, modern methods on family planning may decrease maternal deaths, infant deaths, teenage pregnancies, and induced abortion cases, which are problems currently rampant in the country.

Despite placing a great deal of importance to the health and well-being of women and children, family planning still encourages the participation of each member of the family in deciding their way of life that will suit their needs and health.

With proper Family Planning,The mother can:

1. Quickly restore her strength after pregnancy and childbirth;

2. Prepare for each pregnancy;

3. Have more time for her family and herself; and

4. Have more time to take care of her children.

The father can:

1. Accumulate for the education and needs of his children; and

2. Have more time for his family

The baby and the children have more time for:

1. Breastfeeding;

2. Vaccination;

3. Proper nutrition;

4. Dental care;

5. Adequate education; and

6. Love and care

As mentioned earlier, one of the family planning methods include contraception. Such method is available at pharmacies at affordable rates; or at companies that provide contraceptives to their employees. Meanwhile, the cost of ligation, vasectomy or IUD assumptions – some basic forms of contraception – is covered by PhilHealth’s benefit package. For more information about family planning, consult your doctor, nurse, or midwife at the clinic, health center or hospital nearest you.