Bangladesh

Home to more than 150 million people, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. With overcrowding and restricted resources, women and their families in Bangladesh face challenges in accessing reproductive health care. Despite this, the government of Bangladesh is committed to expanding access to family planning services and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care. Since 1974, EngenderHealth’s work in partnership with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health has helped increase the availability, quality, and use of family planning and reproductive health care services. As a result, lower fertility rates and improved standards of living have made Bangladesh a model for progress and change.

EngenderHealth’s inclusive community-based approach in Bangladesh focuses on expanding access to family planning and preventing and treating obstetric fistula. We also work to increase awareness and access to long-acting and permanent methods of family planning (LA/PMs) such as hormonal implants, the intrauterine device (IUD), and male and female sterilization.  Our work has also included preventing postpartum hemorrhage.

Many births in Bangladesh occur at home, without skilled birth attendants. EngenderHealth has trained thousands of health care workers in Bangladesh to distribute the lifesaving drug misoprostol, a low-cost approach to preventing postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal death. This has contributed to a 40% drop in maternal deaths in Bangladesh during the past decade.