Scaling-up post-pregnancy family planning services: experiences and challenges from Afghanistan

Why was change needed?

In Afghanistan, modern contraceptive prevalence (mCPR) is low among women of reproductive age at 16%,1 while the unmet need for family planning (FP) is high at 25% among women of reproductive age.2 The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) committed to increase the mCPR to 30% and reduce the unmet need to 10%, by 2030.3 The mCPR at 1 month postpartum is 6%, and at 6 months postpartum is 22%.1 One in two currently married Afghan women (age 15–49 years) want to either delay their next pregnancy by at least 2 years (24%) or limit childbearing (26%).2 This low postpartum family planning (PPFP) uptake and high unmet need indicated the need to promote contraception during the postpartum period to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions. Spacing pregnancies by over 2 years can reduce maternal and infant mortality by 30%…

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