Family Planning
Vision
Optimal reproductive health for all residents.
Mission To establish a sustained environment that facilitates universal accessibility to reproductive healthcare services.
Overview Family planning, which is a pillar of reproductive health, may be defined as a conscious and deliberate determination of family size and pregnancy spacing through the utilization of a chosen method or methods of contraception. Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being – and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity – in all matters relating to the reproductive system.
The World Health Organization affirms that family planning “exercises a positive influence on health, development and family well-being, and has a very important impact on mothers and children”. It ensures that every child is a child by choice rather than by chance!
The Ministry of Health’s National Family Planning Policy is included as a priority goal within the country’s overall health policy. The Family Planning Policy is considered expedient at this time, since there appears to be a substantial demand for family planning counselling and services. In the years 1994 and 1995, the Health Information & Research Unit recorded 2,081 and 2,529 postnatal women respectively, as having been provided with contraceptives. For the same periods, there were 4,382 and 3,670 women respectively, outside of the postnatal period who requested contraceptives. These existing services in the public sector, responded to the expressed needs, mainly of women, in the absence of an established Family Planning Policy. <<see more>>
Contact Us
Poncianna Hill Building, Meeting Street
The Department of Public Health
P. O. Box N-3730
Nassau, The Bahamas
Telephone: 502-4835, Fax: 502-4874
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