Pioneering Community-Based Postpartum Family Planning

In Bangladesh, where 50 percent of births occur at home, accessing family planning within one year of delivery remains a significant challenge. To address this urgent unmet need, the USAID-funded Shukhi Jibon project, led by Pathfinder, is bringing quality postpartum family planning (PPFP) services to people’s doorsteps.

This technical brief highlights the kind of innovative approach needed to increase access to PPFP, reduce unmet need for contraception, and increase the modern contraceptive prevalence rate in Bangladesh. Through the dedication and enhanced collaboration of partners in the government of Bangladesh, Shukhi Jibon’s community-based PPFP approach is closing a critical gap to provide pregnant women—whether they deliver at home or in a health facility—with a continuum of sexual and reproductive health care. To save the lives of mothers and infants, achieve Bangladesh’s national family planning goals, and ensure everyone who wants to space or limit their pregnancies can access and use family planning, it is time to reach pregnant and postpartum women where they are.

Learn more about key activities and results, including how this project contributed to an increase in PPFP counseling during antenatal care visits and an increase in uptake of four PPFP methods.