The Challenge Initiative for Healthy Cities (TCIHC) in India worked strategically through its adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) program to reach first-time parents with informed-choice counseling and modern contraceptive services over a six-month period ending June 2019 in five cities in Uttar Pradesh (Allahabad, Firozabad, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur and Varanasi).
The first step was to make sure young first-time parents were visible, so they can receive appropriate services, including contraception, so TCIHC coached and mentored active urban Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to identify them from their urban health index registers (UHIR). This effort included coaching to make sure the ASHAs knew how to complete their UHIRs, develop lists of women based on age and parity (i.e., number of children), and devise a priority list of young first-time parents.
At the same time, TCIHC worked to overcome provider bias to ensure providers and facility staff were aware of the latest medical guidelines and had accurate knowledge on all the methods available for young first time-parents at both the facility (medical-officer-in-charge and staff nurse) and community level (ASHA worker).
