Turned Away and at Risk: Denial of Family Planning Services to Women in Malawi

Family planning (FP) has been a development priority since the mid‐1990s, yet barriers to access persist globally, including women being turned away from facilities without a method. This study aimed to assess the extent of, and reasons for, FP turnaway in three districts of Malawi. In 2019, data co...

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Published inStudies in family planning Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 281 - 299
Main Authors Peterson, Jill M., Bendabenda, Jaden, Mboma, Alexander, Chen, Mario, Stanback, John, Gunnlaugsson, Geir
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2022
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Subjects
Availability
Family planning
Family planning services
Health care
Health care facilities
Health facilities
Health services
Restarting
Staffing
Women
Malawi
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Summary:Family planning (FP) has been a development priority since the mid‐1990s, yet barriers to access persist globally, including women being turned away from facilities without a method. This study aimed to assess the extent of, and reasons for, FP turnaway in three districts of Malawi. In 2019, data collectors screened women exiting 30 health facilities and surveyed those who had been denied a method. Follow‐up surveys were conducted via telephone with turned away clients at six and 12 weeks postvisit. Of the 2,246 women who were screened, 562 were new or restarting users. Of these, 15% (83/562) reported having been turned away from the health facility without an FP method. Women cited 14 different reasons for turnaway; the top three were unavailability of method (34%), unavailability of a provider (17%), or a requirement to return on the scheduled FP day (15%). The multiple reasons cited for leaving the health facility without an FP method indicate that reducing turnaway will not be achieved easily. The top reasons for turnaway are related to health systems or management issues within health facilities. Facilities need additional support for staffing, training on long‐acting and permanent methods, and a consistent supply of methods.
Bibliography:Jill M. Peterson, Department of Global Health and Population Research, FHI 360, Durham, NC 27701, USA and Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology, and Folkloristics, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. E‐mail
Jaden Bendabenda, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; Alexander Mboma, Department of Midwifery, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Lilongwe, Malawi; Mario Chen and John Stanback, Department of Global Health and Population Research, FHI 360, Durham, NC 27701, USA; Geir Gunnlaugsson, Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology, and Folkloristics, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
jillpeterson@fhi360.org
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Jill M. Peterson, Department of Global Health and Population Research, FHI 360, Durham, NC 27701, USA and Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology, and Folkloristics, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. E‐mail: jillpeterson@fhi360.org; Jaden Bendabenda, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; Alexander Mboma, Department of Midwifery, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Lilongwe, Malawi; Mario Chen and John Stanback, Department of Global Health and Population Research, FHI 360, Durham, NC 27701, USA; Geir Gunnlaugsson, Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology, and Folkloristics, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
ISSN:0039-3665
1728-4465
DOI:10.1111/sifp.12192