Empowering Women and Use of Reproductive Health Services: Review Article

Abstract

Background: Women empowerment means empowering women to make independent decisions about the basic life issues. Reproductive health services as a key component of sustainable development make couples to voluntarily and on the basis of awareness and thought make proper and responsible decisions about childbirth given their economic, physical and mental abilities. It can lead to a balance between sustainable development and population growth. The purpose of this study was to explain factors affecting women's ability to use reproductive health services. Methods: A review of studies published from 2000 to 2018 in the databases of PubMed, Google scholar, Magiran, Web of Science was conducted using the keywords of empowering women, empowerment, decision-making power, women. It led to retrieving 99 articles in Farsi and English languages, of which 72 unrelated articles and 8 low quality articles were deleted. Lastly, 19 articles on the empowerment of women to use reproductive health services were selected. Findings: It was found that there was a positive relationship between women's empowerment, and decision-making power, education level, financial independence, employment and freedom of action, the use of reproductive health services in women. Higher women's authority, independence and empowerment, the higher the use of reproductive health services in women. Conclusion: Given the effectiveness of empowering women to a better use of reproductive health services, implementing women's empowerment policies is a good strategy for promoting reproductive health in women.