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Studies on Family Planning

by Candice Bailey

Overview

"Family planning" is a term used to cover a variety of concerns: the care of sexual and reproductive health and use of various contraception methods. Family planning also denotes the obvious meaning: the strategy and knowledge that couples use when they decide to conceive a child. Several institutes and journals exist to conduct extensive research to promote healthy decisions and safe practices in family planning.
Important Resources

The Guttmacher Institute is one of the most trusted organizations promoting sexual and reproductive health "through an interrelated program of social science research, policy analysis and public education." The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association is an accessible source for news and media related to family planning research. Recent studies from the NFPRHA have examined the cost-effectiveness of different birth control methods and the reliability of condoms versus withdrawal. A quarterly journal called "Studies in Family Planning" publishes a high volume of well-researched articles each year.

The Impact of Recession on Family Planning

Economic downturn presents a complicated dilemma for couples and individuals regarding their reproductive decisions. Even under the best circumstances, family planning is a matter of timing. During recession, couples have a choice to make: delay starting a family, or prepare to shoulder the financial risk of raising children. Studies from the Guttmacher Institute show, however, that unwanted pregnancies sometimes rise despite the fact that fewer people are ready to start families in an unstable economy. Part of the problem is attributed to women being unable to afford the high cost of contraceptive pills without health insurance.
Ecological Arguments for Family Planning

Arguments for population control often crop up in family planning debates. The more people in the world, the more resources consumed, goes the conventional logic of ecology. Humans produce waste, emissions and other evidence of "carbon footprints." A study from the London School of Economics shows that the benefits of family planning would go even farther toward preventing climate change: the cost of contraceptives is dramatically lower than the cost of using available technology to reduce carbon emissions. Not only would family planning prevent climate change, according to the study, it also amounts to a bargain of global proportions.
Natural Family Planning

New research has proven that the symptothermal method (STM), known more commonly as the "rhythm method," can be just as effective in preventing unplanned pregnancies as birth control pills. Couples who use this type of natural family planning learn to identify the times when the woman is most likely to conceive. Then they decide to abstain from sex (or not) according to their reproductive desires. The rate of conception for women who use birth control is 0.6 percent, while couples who use STM conceive at a rate of 0.4 percent.
Other Methods

Withdrawal as a means of contraception has been controversial for many years. Couples who use this emergency method do decrease their chances of unwanted pregnancy, but the likelihood is still much higher than for contraceptive pills and STM. According to a study from the Guttmacher Institute, 18 percent of couples who use the withdrawal method each year conceive. Compare this to the conception rate of couples using condoms, which is 17 percent, also quite high.