Resources for Family Planning & Health Care

For those who already have families or want to reduce the impact of a future family click the button to learn about reducing your impact while raising one or more children. This info can also work as a guide for other care givers, institutions, and policy makers.

Improving/Stabilizing Birth Rates

Too much of a good thing, can result in some pretty serious problems. Right now (if we weren't so wasteful with our food) with modern technology, it is estimated that we could easily feed 12-14 billion people, so we have some wriggle room but based on historical data, growing or shrinking a population is always safer when done slowly and ethically.

Governments generally want stable populations, because when a population gets old, followed by a decrease in birth dates, or a "baby bust", they'll suddenly find that they don't have enough people to work in their economy, or to help take care of the aging portion of the population. Elderly care homes, hospitals, schools, and more suffer greatly from lack of employees and brain drain as older people leave for retirement.

In rural areas this can end with younger generations leaving for big cities or to work abroad (furthering the country's "brain drain"), and leaving elderly residents to struggle, eventually resulting in ghost towns and villages. A growing problem around the world that some are trying to fix by offering people monetary and tax break insentives to repopulate and fix up these abandoned places.

Scientists have found 4 important policies that work together to encourage higher fertility rates, "Those policies include greater gender equality, housing affordability, improving job security and even addressing climate change. "

Addressing Climate Change

Most people understand that this issue will increasingly effect everything from food and water security, to wild fires floods, and other traumatizing issues. Parents don't want to worry about their children growing up to a world with no future, no food, an inadequate housing opportunities.

Ensuring Gender Equality

This includes equal pay and access to work despite gender identity or sexuality. It also ensures that men and gay couples will be able to take time off with their newborns and adoptive children in the first months of life without worrying that they will also lose their jobs.

People who are given the legal right to make informed decisions about family planning can choose to hold off on parenting until they have a more stable living situation, while people who are forced to give birth despite known dangers or complications are at an increased risk of being murdered, committing suicide, or dying from preventable child-birth/pregnancy related issues. This is particularly problematic because then people who already have kids leave orphans, while those who would have chosen to have babies later in life instead end up dying due to lack of health care access.

Maintaining Housing Affordability

This helps people feel safe enough to start families or expand their existing families. People living on the street realize that their children are at increased risk of bullying, becoming victims of crime, and life-long trauma. The simple act of enrolling children into school can be difficult to impossible in some places, depending on a person's housing situation. Some countries won't allow people to access benefits like health care or food stamps unless they have some form of permanent residence, which cannot include a homeless shelter. In addition, homeless shelters can be quite dangerous for both adults and children.

Ensuring Job Security

This is vital for people to feel safe enough to start or expand their families. Without adequate jobs, parents struggle to provide food, warm homes, clean clothing, and basic school supplies or tuition. Parents with little to no job opportunities may also worry that any children they have will also struggle to find employment and care for themselves.