CONTENTS
Chapters
- Thirty Years of Family Planning Programs
- Family Planning Demand
- Contraceptive Access
- Choice of Contraceptive Methods
- Client-Centered Quality
- Communication
- Well-Trained Providers
- Program Leadership and Strategic Management
- Research and Evaluation
- Political Commitment
- Financial Resources
Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland
21202-4012, USA
Volume XXII, Number 2
August, 1994 |
Communication
| 5 |
Communication improves use of family planning by
creating awareness, increasing knowledge, building approval, and
encouraging healthy behavior. |
Information, education, and communication (IEC) activities
bring people and family planning programs together. Communication
activities give people the information they need to make informed
choices about using and continuing to use contraception and about
other aspects of reproductive health. In family planning, as in
many other development activities including health and
agriculture, communication campaigns create awareness, increase
knowledge, and build public approval of new ideas and practices
(166).
Learning About Family Planning
Family planning use depends on people's private decisions
and actions. These decisions involve individuals, couples,
families, and even peer groups. It is not enough for service
providers to know about family planning; rather, all of the
people involved in making family planning decisions, and
especially women, need accurate and full understanding (31, 190).
People receive many contradictory messages about sexual
behavior and contraceptives that compete with the messages of
family planning campaigns. Also, what many people think they know
about family planning is wrong. Thus the need for accurate
communication is urgent and continuous.
People obtain information about family planning both from
the mass media and through interpersonal communication. Radio and
television reach millions of people even in remote areas and are
a powerful influence on opinions, attitudes, and behavior (24).
People also hear about family planning in schools, social
programs, and communities. Even community theater has brought
family planning topics to rural people who lack access to radio
and television (7).
Interpersonal communication, whether among family members
and friends or between service providers and clients, plays an
important role in people's decisions about family planning,
helping people decide whether, when, which method, and how to use
family planning. After exposure to mass-media coverage of family
planning, people typically discuss family planning with friends
or relatives, or they make contact with a provider promoted in
the mass media, such as a clinic, a CBD worker, or a telephone
counselor. |
