Family planning practices and women’s impression of the reproductive life plan in Eswatini

•Women in Eswatini had a positive impression of family planning counselling using the Reproductive Life Plan within community health service.•The unmet need for contraception was 22% and few women wanted more children. Therefore, the counselling mainly focused on contraception.•Using the Reproductive Life Plan could be a first step to reduce the unmet need for contraception and unplanned pregnancies in this context. Family planning is limited and unplanned pregnancies are common in Eswatini. The Reproductive Life Plan (RLP) is a counselling tool to improve pregnancy planning. Mentor mothers, i.e. community health workers, were trained in using an adapted RLP and introduced it into family planning discussions with their clients. This study evaluates the clients’ impression of the RLP and investigates their family planning practices. Data were collected in 2018 from anonymous questionnaires filled out by the clients: mothers or pregnant women aged 15–44 years. The questionnaire comprised 20 questions on demographic background, fertility desires, pregnancy planning as well as quality and perceived need for family planning support. Chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact test were used for group comparisons. 199 women were included. Most women (74%) chose the option that family planning discussions using the RLP had helped them ‘very much’. A majority also had a perceived need for these discussions as 70% wanted to have more support from their mentor mother and 92% wanted more information about family planning. Women with lower educational level and younger women wanted more support compared to women with higher educational level and older women (p