FIGO commits to quality, rights-based contraceptive care

Increasing access to quality, rights-based contraceptive care is essential in empowering women to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, and has a direct impact on the reduction of maternal mortality.
Since 2013, FIGO has worked through six of our National Member Societies to institutionalise the provision of postpartum family planning (PP FP) services into routine maternity care. We have trained midwives, health workers, doctors and delivery unit staff in the effort to institutionalise the practice of counselling on postpartum family planning.
Putting local leadership at the heart of our Postpartum Family Planning work is having a long-term impact.
Contraceptive counselling – the provision of information and assistance in choosing a method that meets a woman’s needs and preferences, which FIGO prioritised in our postpartum family planning programme – has radical potential to increase use of modern methods and reduce discontinuation rates.
Making safe, effective contraceptive methods available to more women results in fewer sexually transmitted infections, fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer women and girls dying in pregnancy and childbirth - including from unsafe abortions - and fewer newborn deaths.
We see how acceptance and implementation of PP FP at national level influences individual healthcare providers to take up the issue as part of their professional responsibility.
FIGO and partners have trained more than 8,000 providers in PP FP counselling and insertion and more than 630,000 women have received PP FP counselling.
SDG 3.7 aims to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programs. The FIGO PP FP Initiative is therefore directly contributing to this indicator and FIGO will continue to support our National Member Societies to meet these targets by 2030.

Mode of engagement:

• Programmatic action
  Since 2013, FIGO has worked through our national member societies in six countries to institutionalise the provision of postpartum family planning services into routine maternity care.