The Iraqi federal government is intensifying efforts to space births between two and three years by providing health services and contraceptives to reorganize families.
These efforts are part of the National Family Planning Strategy and birth spacing for the period from 2020 to 2025, which is in the final stages of implementation.
The project was announced in late 2020 under the supervision of the Iraqi Ministry of Health and in coordination with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to serve as a roadmap for improving maternal and child health, reducing poverty, and achieving the sustainable development goals that Iraq has signed.
The United Nations has set 15 sustainable development goals, with the third and fifth focusing on the Iraqi Ministry of Health’s five-year strategy, which includes family planning and birth spacing as a human right. This commitment enables couples and individuals to freely and responsibly decide on the number and spacing of their children.
The Arabic version of the strategy published by the Ministry of Health emphasizes the commitment to improving maternal health and recognizing family planning and birth spacing.
Regarding family planning efforts, the Ministry of Planning explained that Iraq is not ready to issue a law on birth control due to social traditions governing the Iraqi society. However, they have recommendations and procedures related to family planning, such as spacing and reducing births to ensure children's well-being and mothers' health.
Since the strategy's announcement, the Iraqi government has launched a social media campaign urging citizens to space births by two years.
Iraq still has the highest fertility rate in the region, with only 36% of couples relying on modern contraception methods, indicating a need for more accessible family planning services.
Past surveys revealed that the country’s Total Fertility Rate varied between 3.67 & 4.2 children/women. Another statistic in Iraq indicates that over 50 percent of women aged 15 to 49 do not want more children or want to space out their births.
Globally, out of 1.9 billion women of reproductive age, 1.1 billion need family planning, with almost 900 million using modern contraceptives.
The strategy's vision aims for every woman of reproductive age to realize her rights to physical and mental health and well-being related to reproduction by the end of 2025, emphasizing access to family planning services for all in Iraq.
The strategy's guiding principles include nine points, with a focus on human rights, ensuring families can determine the size of family, number of children, and spacing between them, as well as access to information and family planning methods.
Another point emphasizes raising awareness among men and young people regarding their role in deciding on the number of children and spacing between births.
According to Ministry of Health statistics, over one million births were recorded in 2023, with Iraq's population exceeding 46 million according to the latest census.
The strategy targets women, men, couples, and those intending to marry.
Spacing births at least two years apart can reduce child mortality by 21 percent in ages 1 to 4 and infant mortality by 10 percent, as stated in the strategy. Additionally, for every one-percentage increase in contraceptive use, the maternal mortality rate decreases by 4.8 percent per 100,000 deliveries.
Iraq's maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births is 26.7 percent, and 34.3 percent in the Kurdistan Region.
Challenges remain despite efforts, particularly regarding lack of awareness and behavioral differences between urban and rural areas, as well as traditions opposing birth spacing.
The strategy also aims to reduce gaps and disparities between governorates, especially between rural and urban areas, with over 70 percent of Iraq's population residing in urban areas and over 29 percent in rural areas.
The National Strategy for Family Planning and Birth Spacing (2020-2025) emphasizes the state's responsibility to provide family planning services as part of integrated reproductive health, free of charge for low-income couples, and raising awareness about the risks of early and repeated pregnancies.
The strategy also focuses on coordinating between various state sectors, government departments, and local authorities to implement family planning procedures and adopt a decentralized approach in strategy management.
Monitoring and collecting accurate information for evaluation and analysis, as well as sustaining efforts and cooperation with civil society organizations and the private health sector, are also key components of the strategy.
As emphasized multiple times throughout the five-year strategy, one of the main objectives of family planning is to maintain a two to three-year interval between childbirth. This helps in fighting poverty, protecting the lives of mothers and babies, providing more appropriate health services, and offering better education for children.
