The Best Intentions
The Best Intentions

Author: Committee on Unintended Pregnancy

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1995-06-16

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0309556376

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Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies--and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents--are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issues--health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population--are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions--"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals. May

The Turnaway Study
The Turnaway Study

Author: Diana Greene Foster

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-06

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1982141573

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"Now with a new afterword by the author"--Back cover.

Wanted and Unwanted Fertility in Selected States of India
Wanted and Unwanted Fertility in Selected States of India

Author: Sumati Kulkarni

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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This study relied on new measures of wanted and unwanted fertility based on actual and wanted parity progression ratios (PPRs). The study was conducted among selected states in India with varying levels of fertility and socioeconomic development. Data were obtained from the 1992-93 National Family Health Survey of India, among ever married women aged 13-49 years for Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Kerala. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan had low socioeconomic development and were the most populous states. These states included about 75% of women who were illiterate and a little over 25% who were exposed to radio. Fertility ranged from 3.6-4.8 births/woman. Wanted PPRs are the adjusted proportions of women who want more children. The unwanted fertility rate (UFR) is the difference between the total marital fertility rate and the wanted total marital fertility rate (WTMFR). The UFR was lowest in Kerala (0.37 unwanted births) and highest in Uttar Pradesh (1.46). The remaining states had UFRs of about 1 child/woman. The 4 largest states had a WTMFR ranging from 2.95-3.81. Multivariate analysis revealed that education, religion, exposure to mass media family planning messages, experience of child loss, and son preference were the main determinants of contraceptive use among women wanting no more children. Regardless of socioeconomic status, Muslim women were less likely to desire no more children or use contraception.

The Measurement of Wanted Fertility
The Measurement of Wanted Fertility

Author: John Bongaarts

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13:

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Approaches estimating wanted fertility typically depend upon responses to survey questions on desired family size, wanted status of recent births, and desire to continue childbearing. These responses and dependent approaches are, however, typically upwardly biased in measuring wanted fertility. The latter of these 3 approaches, women's desires to continue childbearing, is the least biased of standard preference measures, and is proposed as the basis of a new indirect method of estimating wanted fertility. Existing approaches are reviewed, followed by a description of this proposed model of securing more accurate estimates of both wanted and unwanted components of total fertility. 2 hypothetical applications are conducted to help explain the procedure's logic. The method is then applied to data from 35 World Fertility Survey and 13 Demographic and Health Survey developing countries, and finds results indicating an average 26% of fertility to be unwanted. With wanted fertility ranging from 98% in Senegal to 51% in Peru, average unwanted fertility is substantially higher than that estimated using other approaches. The proportion of unwanted fertility was also found to vary systematically over the course of fertility transition, with lowest levels at beginning and end, and highest among countries in mid-transition. Considering perfect birth control, the potential role of birth spacing to contribute to quantitative control is mentioned.

Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa
Recent Fertility Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-03-18

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 0309381193

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Fertility rates and population growth influence economic development. The marked declines in fertility seen in some developing nations have been accompanied by slowing population growth, which in turn provided a window of opportunity for rapid economic growth. For many sub-Saharan African nations, this window has not yet opened because fertility rates have not declined as rapidly there as elsewhere. Fertility rates in many sub-Saharan African countries are high: the total rate for the region is estimated to be 5.1 births per woman, and rates that had begun to decline in many countries in the region have stalled. High rates of fertility in these countries are likely to contribute to continued rapid population growth: the United Nations projects that the region's population will increase by 1.2 billion by 2050, the highest growth among the regions for which there are projections. In June 2015, the Committee on Population organized a workshop to explore fertility trends and the factors that have influenced them. The workshop committee was asked to explore history and trends related to fertility, proximate determinants and other influences, the status and impact of family planning programs, and prospects for further reducing fertility rates. This study will help donors, researchers, and policy makers better understand the factors that may explain the slow pace of fertility decline in this region, and develop methods to improve family planning in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Best Intentions
The Best Intentions

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1995-06-02

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0309176549

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Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnanciesâ€"and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescentsâ€"are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issuesâ€"health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on populationâ€"are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitionsâ€""unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"â€"and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals.

Contraceptive Research and Development
Contraceptive Research and Development

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1996-11-04

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 0309175658

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The "contraceptive revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s introduced totally new contraceptive options and launched an era of research and product development. Yet by the late 1980s, conditions had changed and improvements in contraceptive products, while very important in relation to improved oral contraceptives, IUDs, implants, and injectables, had become primarily incremental. Is it time for a second contraceptive revolution and how might it happen? Contraceptive Research and Development explores the frontiers of science where the contraceptives of the future are likely to be found and lays out criteria for deciding where to make the next R&D investments. The book comprehensively examines today's contraceptive needs, identifies "niches" in those needs that seem most readily translatable into market terms, and scrutinizes issues that shape the market: method side effects and contraceptive failure, the challenge of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and the implications of the "women's agenda." Contraceptive Research and Development analyzes the response of the pharmaceutical industry to current dynamics in regulation, liability, public opinion, and the economics of the health sector and offers an integrated set of recommendations for public- and private-sector action to meet a whole new generation of demand.