Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP) helps women and families delay, space, or limit pregnancies and achieve healthy outcomes for mothers and children by informing them about how family planning contributes to the overall health and well being of individuals, families, and communities. By addressing the concept of healthy fertility, HTSP information strengthens the case for family planning and facilitates the integration of family planning with other health services.

Information on HTSP and its benefits can readily be integrated into client education and counseling, community outreach, and public health education, especially for family planning, maternal and child health, postabortion care, HIV/AIDS, immunization visits, and general community health. Several countries have incorporated HTSP messages into service delivery guidelines and increased family planning acceptability among conservative communities.

As described in the Training section of the Toolkit, HTSP messages can easily be added to existing training activities. Once providers have been trained in HTSP, service delivery guidelines, tools, and job aids should reinforce the training and encourage their application in facilities and at the community level. 

This section of the Toolkit shares guidance for integrating HTSP messaging into health programs, job aids for counseling clients on HTSP and family planning, and other service delivery tools to facilitate information sharing about HTSP.