Benefits of meeting women's contraceptive needs in Burkina Faso.

Many women and couples in Burkina Faso do not have the knowledge, means or support they need to protect their reproductive health and to have the number of children they desire. Consequently, many women have more children than they want or can care for. Others turn to induced abortion, which is overwhelmingly clandestine and potentially unsafe. By helping women and couples plan their families and have healthy babies, good reproductive health care--including sufficient access to contraceptive services--contributes directly to attaining three Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS. Improving contraceptive services may also make meeting other MDGs--such as achieving universal primary education, reducing endemic poverty and promoting women's empowerment and equality--easier and more affordable. This In Brief aims to chart a course toward better health for Burkinabe women and their families by highlighting the health benefits and cost savings that would result from improved contraceptive services. Building on prior work and using national data to provide estimates for 2009 (see box), it describes current patterns of contraceptive use and two hypothetical scenarios of increased use to quantify the net benefits to women and society that would result from helping women avoid pregnancies they do not want. We focus on the disability and deaths that would be averted and the financial resources that would be saved through preventing unintended pregnancy.