IV.3. Birth Control Efforts
A larger emphasis has been placed on education materials in order to encourage mothers to wait
until they are older to have children. Additionally, related to the increased access to protection
from getting infected by HIV/AIDS, women are being more careful with getting pregnant. “More
women than ever are making choices over their birth spacing. The contraceptive prevalence rate
(CPR) of married women in reproductive age between 15-44 years continues to increase and was
up to 79.2 percent in 2001.”15 Despite such progress, comparing Thailand with other developing
countries in East Asia and Pacific, the limited data available (see Figure 8) seems to indicate that
Thailand is falling behind the progress made in other developing countries in East Asia and
Pacific.