Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancies (HTSP)

Country:
India

Source:
Test Resource

Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) is an intervention to help women and families delay or space their pregnancies in order to achieve the healthiest outcomes for women, newborns, infants and children. According to WHO, qualitative studies conducted by USAID in Pakistan, India, Bolivia, and Peru showed that women and couples are interested in the healthiest time to become pregnant In this way, HTSP differs from previous birth spacing approaches that refer only to the interval after a live birth and when to give birth. HTSP also provides guidance on the healthiest age for the first pregnancy. Thus, HTSP encompasses a broader concept of the reproductive cycle starting from healthiest age for the first pregnancy in adolescents, to spacing subsequent pregnancies following a live birth, still birth, miscarriage or abortion – capturing all pregnancy-related intervals in a woman’s reproductive life. Why HTSP? Multiple studies have shown that adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes are related to closely spaced pregnancies. As shown in the table below, the risks are particularly high for women who become pregnant very soon after a previous pregnancy, miscarriage, or abortion.