Reproductive Life Planning 

Healthy People 2020 has established family planning goals aimed at improving pregnancy planning, spacing, and preventing unintended pregnancy. Further, in its number one recommendation for preconception care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages men and women to formulate a reproductive life plan, to help them in avoiding unintended pregnancies, to improve the health of women, and reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes. Given the high rates of unintended pregnancy in the US, we could all be doing a better job of starting this critical conversation - with ourselves, our families, our friends and the people we serve.

A reproductive life plan is a set of personal goals about
when and if a person wants to have or not have children. A good plan includes steps for achieving that plan - from picking a contraceptive method to finishing school or starting to take prenatal vitamins! Each person's plan is unique to him/her, based on their own values, goals, and resources. RLPs can change frequently - they are far from set in stone! A plan today may feel very different in 6 months as a person's life and circumstances change.

A reproductive life plan can be essential for planning the timing and spacing of pregnancies, identifying and modifying medical, behavioral, and social factors negatively affecting pregnancy outcomes, and managing pre-existing conditions and behaviors, before, between, and beyond pregnancies. Health care providers can introduce RLPs during primary care, outpatient, annual and hospital visits as a prompt to make sure they are providing quality, patient-centered care. RLPs can also be introduced in community settings through home visiting programs, health education curricula, family support programs, church programs, sororities and other initiatives. The question is easy. You can try the following:
Do you want to have (more) children? or 
Sometimes reproductive life planning is used synonymously with preconception care, however preconception health is a larger framework in which reproductive life planning functions as a tool. Routine health promotion activities for all women and men of reproductive age should begin with screening women and men for their intentions to have or not have a baby in the short and long term and their risk of conceiving (whether intended or not). Every woman and man of reproductive age should receive information and counseling about all forms of contraception that are consistent with their reproductive life plan and risk of pregnancy.
When providing RLP counseling, it is important for healthcare providers to be non-judgmental about a patient's culture, values, timing and choices, focusing on providing the best information possible in terms of risks and benefits, and advantages and disadvantages. This conversation offers a special opportunity for a provider to listen to his/her patient and focus on helping him/her best achieve their personal goals.