UN Study Looks At Contraceptive Use Worldwide

According to a United Nations study published yesterday, 233 million women worldwide will have an unmet need for contraception by 2015. 233 million women. 233 million women. 233 million women. That number is just boggling, isn?t it?

The contraceptive study looked at a wide range of women (mainly married or cohabitating women) across the globe, but focused specifically on the need for family planning, defined by the Huffington Post as ?women who wish to postpone having a baby or avoid it altogether but who were?not?using any method of contraception.? The UN study?found that overall, the need for contraception has dropped from about 15% to 12%. Gains were found in southern Asia and parts of Africa, although overall (and especially in central and western Africa) there was still a powerful unmet need for contraceptives.

Dr. Ann Biddlecom told the Huffington Post:

?The gains in contraceptive prevalence and the reduction in unmet need for family planning since 1990 are indeed significant. But some parts of the world are still coping with high unmet need for family planning.?

The study found that up to 70% of women in parts of North America, Asia and Europe use some form of contraception, including hormonal birth control. Here in the US, contraception is common and we?ve largely accepted the idea that a woman should be able to use the contraception of her choice to decide if and when to get pregnant (well, aside from quite a few white male politicians, of course). Although we still have a long way to go as far as making birth control available to every woman who wants it, as women living in a developed country, we undoubtedly have more access to reliable contraception than most women around the globe. That?s something to be thankful for, not something to take for granted (although I do think that contraception should be right, not a privilege).

But elsewhere, there are still many barriers to contraceptive use, ranging from availability of contraceptive methods to high costs to misinformation about contraception itself to cultural notions and perceptions of family planning. Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation are doing good work in regards to making contraceptives more widely available worldwide, but as the numbers in this study in this study project, there?s still a long way to go.

Contraceptive use is one of the most powerful and direct ways that any woman can enact change in her life. Education is another one, and providing women with both education AND contraception can make a dramatic difference in their lives, both in terms of economic benefit and something as simple and fundamental as how long a woman might live.??According to Dr. Daniel Grossman,?vice president for research at?Ibis Reproductive Health:

?Contraception is the single most cost-effective intervention that can reduce maternal mortality ? improve maternal and child health and help women and families achieve their desired family size.?

Photo: Flickr user NateOne

Source: http://www.blisstree.com/2013/03/12/sex-relationships/contraceptive-use-un-study/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contraceptive-use-un-study

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