IntraHealth Partners In Project To Expand Use Of Family Planning Methods

IntraHealth is contributing its expertise in health workforce development to the Fertility Awareness-Based Methods (FAMs) Project of Georgetown University’s Institute of Reproductive Health (IRH).  IntraHealth is assisting with pre-service education and professional development in the USAID-funded project, begun in October 2007.

The IRH aims to expand access to and use of safe, effective, acceptable family planning methods to improve reproductive health for women and their families.   The IRH develops and tests FAM and partners with organizations to identify and implement the most effective ways to offer these methods to couples, women and youth. 

The project was created by the IRH to test model sustainability in providing high-quality FAM services—specifically the Standard Days Method (SDM), the Two Day Method (TDM) and the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM)—in  developing countries and to secure commitment from their governments, programs and donors to support the services without USAID core funds.

IntraHealth is charged with incorporating the three methods into pre-service education curricula and the work of professional associations, including accredited continuing education programs for health professionals in Mali, Rwanda and Guatemala.

The project will offer a package of services to ten countries interested in integrating FAM into their FP strategies.  The package will include a needs assessment, stakeholder development, training of trainers, materials for local adaptation, and technical assistance in supervision, monitoring and evaluation.

The three methods included in the package focus on different ways a woman can determine if she is fertile. The SDM is a family planning method developed and based on the analysis of the fertile time in the woman’s menstrual cycle.  When a woman or couple uses SDM, she tracks her menstrual cycle and avoids unprotected sex during her fertile days to avoid pregnancy. For a woman with a cycle considered regular or approximately 28-32 days in length, fertile days will typically fall between 8 through 19 of her cycle. (Click here for more information about SDM.)  

The TDM allows a woman to identify when she is fertile based on the presence or absence of cervical secretions. If she notices secretions on the current or previous day, then she is likely fertile today and, if she does not want to become pregnant, she should not have unprotected intercourse.  If she does not have secretions today and yesterday (two days in a row), then she is not fertile today. (Click here for more information about TDM.)  The LAM is based on evidence that, during exclusive breastfeeding (the use of mother’s milk as the baby’s only source of nutrition, excluding even water), a woman is not fertile and is unlikely to become pregnant.

IntraHealth’s initial efforts focus on developing a draft guide for integration of FAMs into pre-service education.  The guide will include assessment tools for situation analysis of FAM in national services policy, standards, protocols/guidelines, curricula, FAM integration, orientation and training materials, and follow-up/evaluation tools.

Other partners on the project include JHPIEGO, Constella Futures, Abt Associates, PSI and the Population Council.