Family planning

Combined oral contraceptives. Introduced in 1960, "the Pill" has played an instrumental role in family planning for decades.

Family planning is often used as a synonym for the use of birth control, though its connotations are somewhat different. It is most usually applied to the circumstance of a monogamous female-male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have and/or to control the timing of pregnancy (also known as spacing children). The phrase family planning is most frequently used to mean that the couple uses birth control to plan having children, rather than preventing pregnancy entirely.

See also

• Birth control
• Childfree
• Parenting
• Reproductive health