ABSTRACT
In October 1977, the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) restructured a nonclinical, village-based family planning project into an integrated, community maternal child health and family planning program in 70 villages of the Matlab field surveillance area. This chapter concentrates on the family planning component of the program and discusses aspects of integrating family planning with other health services. The results of an earlier contraceptive distribution program begun in 1975 confirmed a substantial unmet need for family planning in rural areas of Bangladesh. Central facilities for delivering the full range of family-planning services and selected maternity services were developed in the family planning clinic at Matlab Bazaar. Initially the Family Planning Health Service Project provided modern contraceptive methods and related family planning services exclusively. The relatively high prevalence rates in the program villages could give rise to speculation that the Matlab program area may be socio-economically more developed than other regions of rural Bangladesh.
