Percent of target population who can state at least one benefit of waiting 6 months after a miscarriage or abortion before attempting the next pregnancy

Definition:

“Target population” describes a group intended to benefit from healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP) messaging. These are individuals in the identified project catchment area. For instance, a target population may be:

An identifiable subgroup in a population
Mothers-in-law in a physical area
The district population of men or women of reproductive age

Although the intention of this indicator is to evaluate knowledge of health benefits afforded to either the mother or her future child of adequate spacing after a miscarriage or abortion, depending on the program design and what the training or outreach focuses on, health or welfare benefits could be included.

As a proportion, this indicator is calculated as:

(Number of individuals in target population surveyed/interviewed who can state at least one health benefit of waiting at least six months after a miscarriage or abortion before attempting the next pregnancy / total number of individuals in target population surveyed/interviewed ) x 100

Data Requirement(s):

Number of persons in the target population surveyed and verification that the respondent correctly stated one health benefit of waiting at least six months after a miscarriage or abortion before attempting the next pregnancy. Evaluators may wish to disaggregate data by demographic characteristics (e.g. age, sex, marital status, parity).

Data Source(s):

Population-based survey (such as a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices survey); interviews

Purpose:

When pregnancies occur too soon after a miscarriage or abortion (less than six months), women are at higher risk of developing anemia or premature rupture of membranes. Newborns can be born too early or with a low birth weight.

This indicator is useful for evaluating how knowledgeable a target audience is about the benefits of birth spacing after a miscarriage or abortion, which is important for family planning counseling on the part of health providers and understanding demand on the part of clients.

Issue(s):

This indicator alone does not provide a measure of how well the information was understood by the audience or of the audience’s attitude or practices.

Keywords:
communication, healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies (HTSP), family planning, knowledge, safe motherhood (SM)

References:

“Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy: A Trainer’s Reference Guide”, 2008. USAID and ESD Project

“Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies: A Pocket Guide for Health Practitioners, Program Managers, and Community Leaders”, 2006. USAID and ESD Project

WHO. 2005. Report of a WHO Technical Consultation on Birth Spacing. Geneva: Switzerland.

Related content: Family Planning (Core); Safe Motherhood; Social and Behavior Change Communication

Filed under: communication, Family Planning, FP, FP/RH, Indicators, knowledge, pregnancy, Reproductive Health, RH, safe motherhood