Family Planning has the potential to reduce maternal mortality by decreasing the number of at risk pregnancies—those spaced too closely together, and among multiparous and older women. As countries move from very low to high contraceptive prevalence rates, at risk births can be expected to drop 40% and, as a result, MMR also decrease by about 450 points.¹

Studies also show that children under five have less risk of stunting and being underweight if the birth-to-next-pregnancy interval is 36 months². Experts convened by the WHO in 2006 reported that birth-to-next-pregnancy intervals of less than 24 months are at increased risk for preterm, small for gestational age, and underweight infants, who have a greater risk of dying. Women who become pregnant six months after the birth of their last baby—or conceive within six months after an abortion—are also at increased risk of having adverse outcomes.

MCHIP and Family Planning
MCHIP works to advance the understanding of the role of family planning (FP) in ensuring that desired pregnancies occur at the healthiest times of a woman’s life. The ultimate goal of MCHIP FP is to advance FP-MNCH integration, thereby helping women delay, space and limit pregnancies. By ensuring that FP counseling and/or services are routinely provided as part of MNCH at both community and facility levels—with a focus on women with children less than two years of age—MCHIP aims to achieve the best outcomes for women, newborns  infants, and children.

 
Specifically, MCHIP aims to:

• Systematically integrate FP and maternal and newborn care with an emphasis on linking immediate and exclusive breastfeeding with the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM).
• Provide immediate postpartum FP (PPFP) methods such as tubal ligation and postpartum IUD, and ensure that women transition from LAM to other modern methods of contraception when appropriate.
• Strengthen FP counseling and commodities provision as an integral component of postabortion care, and ensure that PAC becomes a component of all emergency obstetric and newborn care.
• Systematically integrate FP opportunities into other service delivery contacts such as well baby visits and  immunizations.
• Develop and apply community-based models for FP integrated within the MNCH continuum of care.

1 Ross J, Stover J,How Increased Contraceptive Use Has Reduced Maternal Mortality, Maternal Child Health Journal; July 2009 Published on-line
2 Rutestein in his analysis of 52 DHS in 2008.