GOVPH

August Month Celebrations

Published: 12 August 2018

Family Planning Month

Published: 12 August 2018

By: Coleen Labitad

The Family Planning (FP) Program is one of the vital health programs of the Department of Health (DOH). It emphasizes the health and well-being of future mothers through proper awareness and use of different family planning methods. Family Planning decreases maternal deaths and infant deaths; decreases teenage pregnancies; avoids induced abortion cases; and reduces poverty alleviation of unwanted big families.

Despite of the many benefits of Family Flaming,many Filipinos are still hesitant to try different modern FP methods due to misconceptions and myths like its side effects (i.e. abortion, effects in sexual performance, work productivity, and possible illnesses). To address this, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released advisory No. 2017-302 last November 2017. It contains the list of 51 contraceptive products which are found non—abortifacient or does not cause abortion. However, this advisory is not properly disseminated to the public and continue to believe such misconceptions. It is important that these issues are properly addressed through intensified campaign and health education of FP‘s safety and effectiveness.

Relative to this, the DOH highlights this year's theme: "Pamilyang Planado, Panalo! #FamilyPlanningTryMo". It aims to promote the use of modern FP methods to achieve the
desired number of children that couples can afford to raise. These methods help space pregnancies for at least three years to give mothers ample time to recover from the physical
and psychological stresses of pregnancy.