Inadequate maternal and child health care

General health care may be underemphasized in promotion of family planning and family planning education, and this may discourage acceptance of the practice. Inadequacy of available contraceptive methods to overcome discomfort or other side-effects, and insufficient medical follow-up on this, may also lead to a rejection of the idea as a whole. The health risks related to pregnancy often go unstated. The fact that general health care is not emphasized in family planning makes the task of overcoming religious and societal taboos much harder, and provides no counterweight to the arguments in favour of large families as a means of insurance against sickness and old age.

[Developing countries] Every year in Africa and Asia alone, half a million women die from pregnancy, childbirth and after-birth effects – leaving behind over 1 million motherless children.

[Industrialized countries] In 1989 it was estimated that 16% of USA women who give birth have inadequate prenatal care – increasing to 33% for unmarried or teenage mothers, 30% for Hispanic women, and 27% for black women.