Contraception

Letter: Effect of Contraceptive Access on Birth Rate

Malcolm Potts
Martha Campbell
2008

Letter in response to the Perspective “REPRODUCING IN CITIES” by Mace published in Science February 2008 in Science

Published in Science, May 16 2008, 874

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Adolescent Childbearing in Nicaragua: A Quantitative Assessment of Associated Factors

Katherine C. Lion
Ndola Prata
Chris Stewar
2009

CONTEXT: Nicaragua has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the world, but little is known about why approximately half of Nicaraguan women give birth before age 20.

METHODS: Data from the 2001 Nicaragua Demographic and Health Survey were used to examine the sexual and reproductive behavior of 3,142 females aged 15–19. Age at sexual debut and age at first birth were assessed using life table analysis, and the impacts of various factors on these measures were then examined in Cox proportional hazard models. Among sexually active females, current use of modern...

A Woman Cannot Die from a Pregnancy She Does Not Have

Malcolm Potts
Nadia Diamond-Smith
2011

The fifth Millennium Development Goal has brought critical attention to the unacceptably high burden of maternal mortality and the need to improve antenatal health care. However, many of the approaches to reducing maternal mortality (e.g., increasing the number of deliveries at health facilities with skilled attendants or improving access to emergency obstetric care) are complex and will take time to implement. In the meantime, maternal mortality can be reduced relatively inexpensively by preventing unwanted pregnancy through family planning. The decision to practice family planning is...

Provision of injectable contraceptives in Ethiopia through community-based reproductive health agents

Ndola Prata
Amanuel Gessessew
Alice Cartwrightc
Ashley Fraser
2011

This collaborative project demonstrates that receiving injectable contraceptives from community-based reproductive health agents proved as safe and acceptable to Ethiopian women as receiving them in health posts from health extension workers. These findings support the development, introduction and scale-up of programs to train community-based health workers to safely administer injectable contraceptives.

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Meeting the need: youth and family planning in sub-Saharan Africa

Ndola Prata
Karen Weidert
Amita Sreenevas
2012

Background: The need for a concerted effort to address the gaps in family planning services for youth in sub-Saharan Africa has been underreported and underexplored.

Study Design: Trends in fertility, childbearing, unmet need for family planning options and contraceptive prevalence (CP) among youth are described with data from six African countries with four consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys. Estimates of exposure to risk of pregnancy and number of new contraceptives users needed to maintain and double CP in 2015 are calculated using current CP and...

Hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels in women using copper-releasing or levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine devices: a systematic review

Ndola Prata
Richard F. Lowe
2012

Background: The use of intrauterine devices as a contraceptive method has been steadily growing in developing countries. Anemia in reproductive-age women is a growing concern in those settings.

Study Design: A systematic review of studies with measured hemoglobin and serum ferritin at baseline and after 1 year of use of copper intrauterine devices (IUDs) or a levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG IUS) was performed.

Results: Fourteen studies involving copper IUDs in nonanemic women and 4 studies in anemic women and 6...

Meeting Rural Demand: A Case for Combining Community-Based Distribution and Social Marketing of Injectable Contraceptives in Tigray, Ethiopia

Ndola Prata
Karen Weidert
Ashley Fraser
Amanuel Gessessew
2013
Background

In Sub-Saharan Africa, policy changes have begun to pave the way for community distribution of injectable contraceptives but sustaining such efforts remains challenging. Combining social marketing with community-based distribution provides an opportunity to recover some program costs and compensate workers with proceeds from contraceptive sales. This paper proposes a model for increasing access to injectable contraceptives in rural settings by using community-based...

The Impact of Freedom on Fertility Decline

Martha Campbell
Malcolm Potts
Ndola Prata
2013

Although fertility decline often correlates with improvements in socioeconomic conditions, many demographers have found flaws in demographic transition theories that depend on changes in distal factors such as increased wealth or education. Human beings worldwide engage in sexual intercourse much more frequently than is needed to conceive the number of children they want, and for women who do not have access to the information and means they need to separate sex from childbearing, the default position is a large family. In many societies, male patriarchal drives to control female...

Women’s Limited Choice and Availability of Modern Contraception at Retail Outlets and Public-Sector Facilities in Luanda, Angola, 2012–2015

Ndola Prata
Benjamin Nieto-Andrade
Eva Fidel
Rebecca Simmons
Dana Sievers
Anya Fedorova
Suzanne Bell
Karen Weidert
2017

Despite high rates of unintended pregnancy, access to a wide range of contraceptive methods, especially injectables and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), is severely limited in both public and private facilities. Knowledge of contraceptive choices is likewise limited, yet a substantial proportion of women are not using their preferred method among the methods they know of.

Abstract:

In Angola, many women want to use family planning but lack access to affordable and preferred methods. This article assesses the link between women’s choice and...