LARC to boost maternal care and nation-building
Empowering women to choose what is best for their bodies and take better care of their health is at the heart of family planning, which enables birth spacing, helps decrease unintended pregnancies, and provides the option to limit the number of children in the family.
Modern methods of family planning include the use of artificial contraceptives which are provided by the Department of Health (DOH) for free, primarily for indigent citizens. Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs), for one, are 99 percent efficacious in preventing women from getting pregnant for years.
LARCs are the most effective reversible methods of contraception because they do not depend on patient compliance. Examples of these include injections, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and progestin-only subdermal implants. The progestinonly subdermal implant is a small rod roughly equal to the size of a matchstick. It is placed under the skin of a woman’s non-dominant upper arm, and is left in place for up to three years.
The subdermal implant, easily administered by trained midwives, doctors, and nurses, releases progestin which is a synthetic version of the female hormone progesterone that prevents the ovaries from releasing eggs each month, and thickens the mucus in the cervix to block sperm. When the woman decides to have her contraceptive implant removed, her regular fertility cycle immediately resumes.
FAMILY PLANNING AND NATION-BUILDING
Addressing the unmet need in family planning, which pertains to women who are not ready to conceive but are not using any method of contraception, is seen as one of the foremost ways to help progress nation-building.
Family planning continuously gains significance given the seriousness of maternal mortality and morbidity issues around the world. In the Philippines, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported in 2017 that 114 Filipino mothers die in every 100,000 live births. Its report on infant mortality, on the other hand, showed that 22 babies die out of 1,000 live births.
As emphasized by the World Health Organization, “a woman’s ability to choose if and when she would become pregnant has a direct impact on her health and well-being.” Family planning can delay pregnancies in women who are at risk of having health complications that may even cause death. It can also reduce infant mortality as it prevents ill-timed pregnancies and births from mothers with poor health.
Family planning also helps curb population growth and enables a developing country to maximize its resources like investing on education and proper healthcare.
The DOH’s family planning advocacy is anchored on the basic principles of responsible parenthood, respect for life, and promoting informed choice among couples. Among its other benefits within the family are allowing the mother to regain her health after delivery, and bring up healthy children that both parents can adequately support.There are 51 hormonal contraceptives approved as safe and non-abortifacient by the Philipines Food and Drug Administration.