Sexuality and reproductive health

The rapid socio-economic development of Korea was primarily due to the successful implementation of a series of Five-Year Economic Development Plans that started in 1962. Concomit with socio-economic development, Korea's demographic change has been made at a pace the world has not seen before. The country's total fertility rate (TFR) was as high as 6.0 children per woman in 1960. By 1983, the figure dropped to the order of the population replacement level, and in 2005 to 1.08. It has since been hovering 1.2. Since 1962, the population policy in Korea could be largely divided into three phases of the population control policy with emphasis on the national family planning programs (1962~1996), population quality and welfare improvement policy (1996~2004), and fertility encouragement policy (2006~) to briefly describe major phases and developmental processes of the population policy. This paper aims to provide an overview of developments in Korea’s population control policy in chronological order, changes in fertility and contraceptive behaviors on the past accomplishments, as well as a few socio-cultural and demographic problems that Korea encountered in the course of implementing the population policy in Korea.

The objectives of this study are to identify the situation of children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, the children’s primary caregivers, and the needs and the priority of the needs of the children. This study utilized a combination of three methods to collect data such as synthesizing information from available secondary documents, quantitative study and qualitative study. More than a half of primary caregivers for children infected and affected by HIV are over 60 year-old, bad health, and low income. 94% of households said that their income is not sufficient to spend. 44.4% of households have unstable income. About 24% of children infected and affected by HIV are living in the houses with poor condition. The situation of physical and psychological health of the HIV-infected children is very bad. The biggest difficulty for children affected by HIV/AIDS is access to education because of lack of money to pay tuition fees, and discrimination. The children suffer from the discrimination in both their communities and their families. The first needs of the whole children is educational support, the second is medical examination and treatment support and the third is the support related to nutrition. Key words: HIV-infected children, children affected by HIV, support needs, primary caregivers, maternal or paternal grandparents...

The Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Program (NURHI) aims to increase contraceptive use in four urban areas in Nigeria. To address supply side issues NURHI has spearheaded the formation of a Family Planning Provider Network (FPPN) in each city. A baseline study on FPPN members was conducted. Results showed FPPN members in Ibadan and Ilorin are more biased than those in Abuja and Kaduna. Gender, religion and prior modern family planning use are not associated with service provision biases. PMVs and community outreach workers have more biases than clinicians. The finding that PMV operators, a significant proportion of the FPPN and a source of contraceptive supply for around a quarter of urban Nigerians, have high biases indicates program efforts to integrate the PMV and clinician network, to reduce PMV operator biases, must be prioritized in the FPPN program.

This paper uses a unique natural experiment to investigate the sensitivity of American college women’s contraceptive choice and sexual behavior to the price of prescription birth control. In 2005, Congress unexpectedly increased the effective price of birth control pills (“the Pill”) at college health centers more than three-fold, from $5 to $10 a month to between $30 to $50 a month. Using two different data sets, we employ multiple empirical strategies—including interrupted time-series, quasi-difference-in-differences, and fixed effects—for identification, and we find consistent results across data sets and methodologies. Our benchmark estimates show that this policy change reduced use of the Pill by at least 1.5 percentage points, or 3 to 4 percent, among all college women. For college women who lacked health insurance or carried large credit card balances, the decline was two to three times as large. We also find modest but significant decreases in frequency of intercourse and the number of sex partners, suggesting that some women may be substituting away from sexual behavior in general. Finally, supplementing our data with a unique survey on how and where birth control prescriptions are filled, we use a back-of-the-envelope calculation to bound the price elasticity of Pill usage between -0.09 and -0.04.

Unmet need is a widely used family planning indicator, and in 2008 it was added to the set of MDG indicators. Yet there is considerable confusion about what “unmet need” represents, reflecting lack of clarity about the underlying concept. Unmet need is commonly interpreted as tantamount to unsatisfied demand for contraception. But the conventional unmet need indicator does not use survey items asking women whether they want to use contraception, nor does it use any measures of access to contraception. Moreover, if reducing unmet need is an explicit policy goal, then program design should be informed by a good understanding of reasons for unmet need. The aims of this paper are: (i) to clarify what the widely used estimates of unmet need actually represent; (ii) to explore reasons for unmet need, with the aim of deepening our understanding of the policy and programmatic challenge. After discussing the concept (and clarifying what it does and does not represent), we conduct an extensive and thorough analysis of DHS data on reasons for non-use in surveys from 1990 to the present, looking for societal variation and variation according to stage of transition. Programmatic implications of the main reasons for unmet need are identified.

Considering the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 5, the targets of Bangladesh is to reduce the maternal mortality rate into 143/100,000. At present, one third of pregnant women don't receive antenatal care. More than 70% of births took place at home. Only 29 percent of mothers receive postnatal care from a medically trained provider within 42 days after delivery. The aim of the study is to understand the barriers to household decision on obtaining maternal health care services. This is a qualitative study with phenomenological approach. The data collection process is guided through FGD, and in-depth interview. The findings show that careless about pregnancy, workload and the care of other children are viewed as reasons for poor adherence to ANC and delivery care. Mothers-in-law play an influential role in the uptake of ANC as well as delivery care in Bangladesh. Women prefer same sex health care professionals and there is no need to go for postnatal check-up when everything is normal. Decision-making is recognized as a complex process entwined with local belief systems and social relationships. Mothers, mothers-in-law, other female relatives, friends and neighbors are trustworthy sources of information in Bangladesh and play important role in decision making process.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the association between family, religion, religiosity, and two risk behaviors – drinking and unprotected sex – among male and female 16-17 year-old public high school students, in three municipalities of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data come from Pesquisa Jovem (Youth Survey), a survey of students of public high schools in several municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais carried out by Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais between 2007 and 2010. This paper focuses specifically on senior high school students interviewed in 2010 in three municipalities: Governador Valadares, Ibirité, and Ribeirão das Neves (n=2,615 total; n=1,047 ever had sex). Although drinking is illegal for individuals younger than 18 years of age, preliminary results indicate that more than half of the students drink and, among those, ¾ do so at parties. Less than half of the students who have ever engaged in sex used a condom during their last episode of intercourse, and those who live with their mothers are more likely to have used a condom.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, estimated at 23 per cent, is among the highest in the world. The government of Lesotho has made significant progress in providing HIV related services nationwide however, these services remain inadequate. The stigma associated with HIV remains a challenge to provision of HIV related services and has led to a global drive towards integrating HIV and sexual and reproductive health services (SRH). While increased access to HIV and SRH services is crucial, integration of the services needs to done without compromising quality of care within existing SRH service delivery points. LPPA emphasises quality of care in provision of SRH services and adheres to set guidelines. The association is planning to integrate HIV services into existing SRH service delivery points. This paper will analyse quality of care in LPPA’s Maseru service delivery point using a framework proposed by Bruce (1990) and data from exist interviews conducted at the clinic. The results will inform the service integration process with a view to ensuring that quality of care is not compromised and is improved where necessary. Since LPPA has always adhered to quality of care guidelines we expect clients to be satisfied with the quality of service.

This paper draws upon data generated during a qualitative study of male involvement in reproductive health during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period in rural districts of Malawi. One of the key themes drawn from this research was information and support for pregnant women, evidence from this research suggested that women’s health during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period would benefit women if they were given information and support during pregnancy, delivery and the postnatal period. A total of 48 men and 45 women between the ages of 20-87 years from four rural districts were interviewed: The research answered the following questions:
• What information is required for pregnant women to stay healthy?
• What support do you think women need from others/services during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care?
The results indicate that women should be given information early in pregnancy about health practices and behaviours, birth preparedness, place of delivery and contraceptive methods. The support that women need during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care included neighbour’s instrumental support of household labour, and neighbour’s support with caring for the baby.

Des études récentes indiquent une persistance du niveau élevé de la mortalité maternelle dans un contexte de pauvreté au Cameroun. Ces deux informations cruciales justifient l’intérêt scientifique de cette étude sur l’impact du statut socio-économique du ménage sur le risque de mortalité maternelle au Cameroun. Basée sur trois EDS Cameroun entre 1991 et 2004, l’étude permet, après identification des facteurs de risque de mortalité maternelle, de les associer à la pauvreté : Une analyse contextuelle développe, grâce à la méthode de décomposition, le rôle joué par le statut socio-économique du ménage dans l'évolution des niveaux des risques spécifiques liés à la mortalité maternelle. Le changement social observé est analysé pour déterminer s’il découle d’un changement des comportements ou, au contraire, s’il découle d’une dynamique des structures en termes de taille et composition, dans certaines catégories à déterminer. La dernière phase utilise essentiellement des régressions multinomiales pour dresser les profils des femmes à haut risque et expliquer la survenance des risques de mortalité maternelle. Les résultats obtenus sont assez évocateurs et permettent non seulement de valider la littérature récente, mais aussi de plaider pour des actions ciblées susceptibles de réduire le niveau de la mortalité maternelle au Cameroun.