Three months after giving birth to her first child, Meraquel Aniñon had settled into the rhythm of motherhood. Her days revolved around caring for her infant while her husband spent long hours working as a food vendor, hoping to earn enough to support their young family.
Like many Filipino households, Meraquel and her husband were focused on budgeting carefully, making every peso count. They knew they wanted to wait before having another child, but what worried them was the uncertainty of how to safely space their pregnancies.
“We’re still starting our family,” Meraquel said. “Right now, our priority is our baby.”
Meraquel's story reflects a much more pervasive reality across the Philippines. Despite significant progress in expanding family planning services, many Filipino women still face barriers to information, access to modern contraception, and quality reproductive health care. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), more than half of pregnancies in the Philippines are unplanned. Each year, there are 71 unintended pregnancies for every 1,000 women ages 15 to 49.
“Many women don’t even realize how soon they can conceive again, even before menstruation returns if they are not exclusively breastfeeding,” said Jerico del Rosario, Regional Technical Coordinator for Jhpiego in the Philippines, speaking about how fertility returns after childbirth.
Health experts have long recognized that spacing pregnancies benefits both mothers and babies, reducing the risk of pregnancy complications, preterm birth, and low birth weight while giving mothers time to recover physically and emotionally before another pregnancy.
The barriers to informed reproductive choices are often due to many factors, including limited access to accurate information, misconceptions about contraception, geographic disparities, social norms that stigmatize family planning, stockouts of contraceptives, and a shortage of trained providers.
For young families like Meraquel's, timing matters. She needed time to recover from childbirth, focus on her baby, and help her family build financial stability before having another child. So she visited her local health facility in Batangas City, hoping to learn about family planning methods. What stayed with her most, however, was how comfortable she felt having the conversation.
Health care providers carefully explained her options, answered her questions, and gave her all the family planning information she needed to decide what was best for her.
“I chose the implant because it is effective and convenient,” said Meraquel. “It gives me peace of mind knowing that I have a family planning method that will protect me for five years.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 77.1 percent of women of reproductive age globally who want to avoid or postpone pregnancy have their need for family planning met with modern contraceptive methods. In the Philippines, 42 percent of married women and 24 percent of sexually active unmarried women are using a modern contraceptive method. The Department of Health estimates that modern contraceptive use in the Philippines prevents around 3 million unintended pregnancies, averts approximately 700,000 unsafe abortions, and helps prevent about 1,000 maternal deaths every year.
The health workers who counseled Meraquel had recently completed competency-based clinical skills training through Project LAYA (Long-Acting Methods for Your Access), an initiative implemented by Bayer, Jhpiego Philippines, and the Philippine Society for Responsible Parenthood Inc. The project aims to expand access to voluntary, long-acting family planning services in the Philippines.
In June 2026, Project LAYA was rolled out across Calabarzon, a region south of Metro Manila comprising the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon. More than 60 doctors, nurses, and midwives were trained between June and July 2026. Beyond technical skills, the training emphasized respectful counseling so women could make voluntary and informed reproductive health decisions.
It was during one such training that Meraquel visited her local health facility and chose to receive the two-rod contraceptive implant, a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) that continuously releases a low dose of the hormone levonorgestrel. The method is more than 99 percent effective, provides protection for up to five years, and fertility typically returns soon after removal. It is also safe to use among breastfeeding women.
Before the procedure, she was counseled and assessed to ensure the implant was medically appropriate for her. The providers also shared information on possible side effects, warning signs, and when to return for follow-up or removal. After she provided informed consent, a trained provider inserted the two-rod implant beneath the skin of her upper arm using local anesthesia. The procedure took only a few minutes.
Organizers had initially anticipated that each trainee would serve one client. Instead, 74 women opted for the implant, reflecting strong community demand for accessible, high-quality family planning services.
Research consistently shows that voluntary family planning enables families to invest more in their children's nutrition, education, and well-being while giving women greater opportunities to pursue work and other life goals. It is not simply a health intervention; it is an investment in human development.
Project LAYA supports the Philippines' commitment under FP2030 to expand access to voluntary, rights-based family planning. While the Philippines has made steady progress in increasing the use of modern contraceptives, significant gaps remain, particularly among women in underserved communities and those with limited access to trained providers and quality counseling.
Today, Meraquel is focused on watching her baby grow, one milestone at a time. Her husband continues to work daily, while she cares for the family they are building together.
For the next five years, she knows she has one less uncertainty to worry about.
“I chose the implant because it gives me peace of mind,” she said.
Just like Meraquel, for thousands of Filipino women, the ability to make informed choices about their reproductive health can mean better health for themselves and their children, stronger families, and a future shaped not by chance but by choice.
Geri Matthew Carretero is the Communications and Knowledge Management Officer for Jhpiego Philippines and a member of the Press Photographers of the Philippines.
Megan Christofield is the Principal Technical Advisor for Family Planning and Self Care at Jhpiego.
