Family Planning in Asia and the Pacific - International Council on ...

Figureprojection, <strong>and</strong> so on). The estimate used <strong>the</strong> census-basedpercentage of women <strong>in</strong> union (58.2%), which is lowerthan <strong>the</strong> NDHS percentage.The estimates show that <strong>the</strong>re were 3.19 million marriedwomen of reproductive age with an unmet need <strong>in</strong> 2010,up by 0.97 million from <strong>the</strong> number <strong>in</strong> 2005; <strong>and</strong> 2.33million us<strong>in</strong>g traditional methods, up by 0.42 million.Overall, <strong>the</strong> family plann<strong>in</strong>g programme needs to reach asmany as 5.52 million women <strong>in</strong> 2010 to help <strong>the</strong>m accessmodern methods of contraception. About 42 per cent of<strong>the</strong>se women 36 – some 2.32 million – belong to <strong>the</strong> twolowest wealth qu<strong>in</strong>tiles as classified by NDHS.Women users of traditional methods <strong>and</strong> those withunmet need contribute to 24 <strong>and</strong> 68 per cent, respectively,of un<strong>in</strong>tended pregnancies <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Philipp<strong>in</strong>es. Darroch 37<strong>and</strong> colleagues estimated that, <strong>in</strong> 2008, if all women atrisk of un<strong>in</strong>tended pregnancies were able to use a modernmethod of contraception, <strong>the</strong>re would have been:0.8 million fewer unplanned births0.5 million fewer <strong>in</strong>duced abortions0.2 million fewer spontaneous abortions2,100 fewer maternal deaths120,000 fewer DALYs *1 of womenfewer <strong>in</strong>fant deaths s<strong>in</strong>ce births spaced by 2 years ormore have <strong>the</strong> best chance of survival, but 33 per cent ofall births do not meet this idealReasons for not <strong>in</strong>tend<strong>in</strong>g to usemodern contraceptionAmong women not us<strong>in</strong>g any method, 53 per cent stated<strong>in</strong> 2008 that <strong>the</strong>y did not <strong>in</strong>tend to use one <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> future,up from 46 per cent <strong>in</strong> 1993. These are relatively highrates. In a 2007 study 38 of 34 countries with 2000 to 2005DHS surveys, <strong>the</strong> range of <strong>in</strong>tended non-use was 23 to 79per cent. The Philipp<strong>in</strong>es ranked fourth from <strong>the</strong> top, afterMauritania, Eritrea <strong>and</strong> Nigeria (see Figure 10). However,unlike most of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r top countries <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>tended nonuse,<strong>the</strong> Philipp<strong>in</strong>es fared better <strong>in</strong> terms of current useof any modern contraception (3rd among <strong>the</strong> 15 countries<strong>in</strong> Figure 10). This cross-country comparison can shedlight on <strong>the</strong> Philipp<strong>in</strong>e's pattern of contraceptive use. The<strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g total dem<strong>and</strong> for family plann<strong>in</strong>g (seen <strong>in</strong> Figure8) probably <strong>in</strong>dicates a widespread desire to control fertilitythat is matched by strong resistance or barriers to modernmethod use. The result is low to moderate levels <strong>and</strong> slowgrowth of modern contraceptive use, a large reliance ontraditional means to control fertility, <strong>and</strong> a high percentageof those not plann<strong>in</strong>g to use any method at all.Figure10Intended future non-use among married women not us<strong>in</strong>g any method, top 15 countries with2000–2005 DHS, compared with percentage use of modern methods306