Postpartum Family Planning

About the Compendium

The World Health Organization recommends that comprehensive family planning counselling be provided during antenatal and postpartum care, in order for women to make informed decisions about birth spacing and family planning. Contraceptive options should be individually discussed, and contraceptive methods should be provided if requested.

To achieve this goal, the WHO Postpartum Family Planning Compendium Mobile Application integrates core WHO guidance for healthcare providers to guide women though their family planning decision-making in the first year postpartum. The WHO Postpartum Family Planning Compendium is a user-friendly platform for WHO guidance regarding postpartum family planning.

The Compendium consists of two sections: (1) menus that allow the user to select characteristics of a woman in the postpartum period needing family planning services, and (2) a list of family planning methods arranged by effectiveness and timing eligibility in the postpartum period.

The user selects co-morbid conditions, breastfeeding status, and personal characteristics (for example, smoking or adolescence) that could affect a woman’s eligibility for a specific method, and selects the timing in the year after delivery. The user can then click on each family planning method to see whether the woman is eligible for that method on the basis of the characteristics selected. Both general information on the contraceptive method and relevant information from WHO family planning guidelines are then displayed. The user-friendly interface allows for easy toggling between conditions and among contraceptive methods.

All postpartum family planning guidance from the following documents is incorporated into the Compendium:
1. The Medical Eligibility for Contraceptive Use, Fifth Edition, 2015
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/181468/1/9789241549158_eng.pdf
2. The Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, Second Edition, 2004
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43097/1/9241562846.pdf
3. The Family Planning Fact Sheet
www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs351/en
4. Ensuring human rights in the provision of contraceptive information and services, 2014
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/102539/1/9789241506748_eng.pdf
5. Hormonal contraceptive methods for women at high risk of HIV and living with HIV, 2014
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/128537/1/WHO_RHR_14.24_eng.pdf
6. Postnatal care of the Mother and Newborn, 2013 http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/97603/1/9789241506649_eng.pdf

The WHO Postpartum Family Planning Compendium has been made possible through a grant from the Gates Foundation.