Compared to cases where husbands were involved, women who were seen alone were 23 percent more likely to visit a family-planning nurse, 38 percent more likely to ask for a relatively concealable form of contraception (injectable contraceptives or contraceptive implants), and 57 percent less likely to report an unwanted birth nine to fourteen months later.29 One of the reasons the Matlab program changed fertility choices more than other family-planning programs is probably also that by visiting the women in their houses, presumably when the husbands were away, the female health worker may have
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