S haheen Hussain, the 6th of 7 children raised in an unprivileged home in a village of Punjab, Pakistan, married when she was 18 and played the traditional role of housewife and caregiver to her children, but she felt unfulfilled on a personal level. Two years ago, she became a field-based health educator with the ‘‘Suraj’’ (sun) social franchise of private reproductive health care providers, e...

OBJECTIVES Networks of franchised health establishments, providing a standardized set of services, are being implemented in developing countries. This article examines associations between franchise membership and family planning and reproductive health outcomes for both the member provider and the client. METHODS Regression models are fitted examining associations between franchise membershi...

BACKGROUND The paper argues that several Sub-Saharan African countries have recorded marked improvements in the use of reproductive health services. However, the literature has hardly highlighted such progress and the factors responsible for them. The current study uses Ghana as a case to examine progress in the consumption of reproductive health services over the last two decades and the facto...

The present study examines how growing socio-economic inequalities in transitional countries that have followed different health policy paths affect women's access to reproductive health care. I conducted surveys in Kazakhstan and Belarus and used logistic regression analyses to determine accessibility to and satisfaction with reproductive health services, reproductive status, and reproductive ...

Despite advances in reproductive health law, many Filipino women experience unintended pregnancies, and because abortion is highly stigmatized in the country, many who seek abortion undergo unsafe procedures. This report provides a summary of reproductive health indicators in the Philippines—in particular, levels of contraceptive use, unplanned pregnancy and unsafe abortion—and describes the so...

These reforms have also been affected by changes in national and international allocation of resources to the health sector, the attribution of responsibility for health, and the increasing commodification of health in almost all countries [2]. Policy changes, some progressive, others retrogressive, wide-ranging biomedical and social research, and efforts to improve sexual and reproductive heal...

BACKGROUND In many contexts, women with disability have less access to sexual and reproductive health information, screening, prevention, and care services than women without disability. Women with disability are also known to be more likely to experience physical and sexual violence than women without disability. In the Philippines, health service providers often have little awareness of the s...

background & aim: qualitative perspectives on reproductive health (rh) facilities, adolescent friendly health services (afhs) still remain unexplored among indian adolescents. the aim of our study was to explore the perceptions and awareness about reproductive health and its facilities among adolescents in two districts in india. methods: a qualitative study design using fgd was adopted. strati...

BACKGROUND The fertility behavior of Iranian women and their reproductive needs is changing and consequently, for providing good services, it is critical to monitor their reproductive behavior at a national level.  METHODS This study was carried out by Avicenna Research Institute in the urban and rural parts of Iran between 2010 and 2011. Using cluster sampling, the reproductive history of 17...

background: nowadays, the concept of family planning has been detached from the population control and it is expressed as an essential element in women’s reproductive rights, empowering them and promoting their status in society. family planning services have an important role in fertility decisions using contraception methods in women. this study was carried out to explore the experience of wo...