Recommendations for Contraceptive Use
RH TOC		Elements of Informed Choice

Counseling is an interactive process, where the provider listens to the client's needs, tries to elicit the client's concerns, and offers relevant information to better enable the client to make decisions. The process ideally includes the provider giving a balanced presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of each method and asking the client what she understands about the choices available to her. The World Health Organization and others have stipulated the importance of providers NOT coercing or overly emphasizing certain methods over others.

The following is a summary of recommendations made by the International Planned Parenthood Federation based on their evaluation of the association between counseling, quality of care, and method continuation:

1. Counseling on contraception should be focused mainly on the essential information and discussions needed by the client to make an adequate contraceptive choice and for using the method properly and consistently.

2. Counseling should be restricted to the number of issues that can be properly discussed within the available time.

3. The amount of information provided during a counseling session should be in accordance with what the client can understand and retain in her memory. We must remember that the process of learning should be a continuous one, and that no one should be expected to learn in one counseling session more than what is reasonably possible.

4. Service providers must remember that every client has different needs and levels of knowledge and understanding of family planning. Therefore the focus of counseling, the counseling technique and the time spent with the client should be tailored according to the characteristics and needs of the individual client.

Further elements of informed choice have been defined by the Cooperating Agencies Task Force on Informed Choice. The following report summary is taken from: Cooperating Agencies Task Force on Informed Choice. Informed Choice: Report of the Cooperating Agencies Task Force. Baltimore MD, The Johns Hopkins University, 1989.

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Any part of Recommendations for Updating Selected Practices in Contraceptive Use may be reproduced or adapted to meet local needs without prior permission from the TG/CWG Secretariat, provided the TG/CWG is acknowledged and the material is made available free of charge or at cost.