Self-care interventions for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights – implementation considerations

Self-care refers to the ability of people to promote their own health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability, with or without the support of a health or care worker. Self-care interventions are tools that support self-care as additional options to facility-based care. Recognizing laypersons as active agents in their own health care, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s global normative guideline on self-care interventions recommends people-centred, holistic approaches to health and well-being for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Examples of such interventions include pregnancy self-testing, self-monitoring of blood glucose and/or blood pressure during pregnancy and self-administration of injectable contraception. Building on previous studies and aligning with the WHO classification for self-care, we discuss nine key implementation considerations: agency, information, availability, utilization, social support, accessibility, acceptability, affordability, and quality. The implementation considerations form the foundation of a model implementation framework that was developed using an ecological health systems approach to support sustainable changes in health care delivery

Self-care interventions for women’s health and well-being

The human right to health is universal and non-exclusionary, supporting health in full, and for all. Despite advances in health systems globally, 3.6 billion people lack access to essential health services. Women and girls are disadvantaged when it comes to benefiting from quality health services, owing to social norms, unequal power in relationships, lack of consideration beyond their reproductive roles and poverty. Self-care interventions, including medicines and diagnostics, which offer an additional option to facility-based care, can improve the autonomy and agency of women in managing their own health. However, tackling challenges such as stigma is essential to avoid scenarios in which self-care interventions provide more choice for those who already benefit from access to quality healthcare, and leave behind those with the greatest need. This Perspective explores the opportunities that self-care interventions offer to advance the health and well-being of women with an approach grounded in human rights, gender equality and equity