Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP)

Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) encompasses preventive health behaviors that can be successfully carried out using a number of different modern contraceptive methods. These include pills, implants, emergency contraception, Lactational Amenorrhea Method, Standard Days Method, condoms (which offer dual protection against pregnancy and HIV), long-acting reversible methods, and permanent methods. HTSP may be practiced to delay a woman’s first pregnancy, to space subsequent pregnancies, or to avoid pregnancy among women of advanced age and women of high parity.

By helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and high parity/high age pregnancies, family planning has the potential to reduce maternal mortality by approximately 30-40% (Cleland 2012).

By helping women space pregnancies at least 24 months apart, family planning has the potential to reduce child mortality by approximately 20% (Cleland 2012).

Increasing awareness of the benefits of HTSP among policy makers, providers, and community members can contribute to increasing the use of modern contraceptive methods and preventing the deaths of millions of mothers and children by 2020.

This course will give you the information you need to become an effective champion for HTSP.