Abstract:
This report estimates the number of maternal
and child deaths that could be averted by
satisfying the unmet need for contraception
based on four high-risk fertility behavior
categories, i.e., having a birth at too young
an age, too old an age, with inadequate
spacing, and at high parity. The data come
from 45 Demographic and Health Surveys
conducted between 2006 and 2012 with 691,362
non-pregnant women. Twenty-one percent of
non-pregnant women have an unmet need for
contraception due to their desires or their
fertility risk, 5 percent for an unmet
spacing method, and 16 percent for a limiting
method. Another 20 percent are using a
spacing method but have a need for a long-
acting, permanent method of family planning.
In total, 41 percent of women have a need for
focused efforts by family planning programs.
By satisfying the risk-based unmet need for
contraception, over half of infant and under-
five deaths could be averted, with 3.2
million deaths averted out of the 5.6 million
deaths projected for 2015. Even more
spectacular is the number of maternal deaths
that could be averted, i.e., 109,000 out of
the 155,000 projected, for a reduction of 70
percent. Only two of five women who need
focused efforts and who visited a health
facility in the preceding year were informed
about family planning. It is thus incumbent
upon national and private health programs and
donors to serve the women with unmet needs,
to cost-effectively avert maternal and child
deaths, and to reach the Sustainable
Development Targets 3.1 and 3.2.