Engaging youth in discussions about family planning is difficult for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the general discomfort adolescents have talking with adults about sex. Sometimes it can be easier to talk about uncomfortable issues when the spotlight is turned on someone else’s situation. This lesson plan offers that opportunity by embedding health information in a social studies lesson. 

By focusing on clips from the film Motherland, which features patients at a public maternity hospital in the Philippines, students can take a step back from the topic and learn about it with some critical distance. The lesson provides students with a way to examine policy and practice and learn about birth control methods, without getting mired in controversial debate, personal religious beliefs or their own embarrassment.