Birth planning decisions.

In that decisions concerning having a child or undergoing sterilization are difficult to make a counseling technique for helping couples make childbearing decisions that are most satisfying to them is proposed. Based upon behavioral decision theory a hierarchy of birth planning values has been developed. Couples were provided with this structure the hierarchy of birth planning vlaues by which they could examine in an orderly way the costs and benefits of having vs. not having a (another) child. 2 case histories are included to illustrate the use of the hierarchy in birth planning counseling.