NEGATIVE MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS ARE BARRIERS TO FAMILY PLANNING — HEALTH EXPERTS
REPORTER: UGONNA AGU
It is no longer news that access to safe and voluntary family planning is a human right and central to gender equality.
However, religion, cultural bias and lack of support from the spouses threaten the right of women to own their body and ability to build a brighter future for themselves.
In this special report our correspondent examines how the prevalence of negative myths have affected women’s access to family planning.
Family planning is the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children, the spacing and timing of their births.
It is on record that family planning slows unsustainable population growth, which drains resources from the national and regional environments.
Family planning includes the use of contraceptives, sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and infertility management.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its article three aims “to ensure universal access to free family planning services by 2030.”
Despite the many evidences on the overall benefits of family planning, many countries, including Nigeria, continue to lag behind on their commitment and interest in contraceptive services.
The Federal Government in its commitment to provide free access to family planning commodities and achieving a high Contraceptive Prevalence Rate has built an effective supply and management for essential life saving commodities.
Meanwhile cultural, religious myths and misconceptions have been identified as hindrance to the uptake of family planning consumables.
A forty year old mother of seven, Mrs. Osinachi Ihemtuge, says she was not on any family planning package, because she hoped to have another male child.
“I don’t do family planning because I don’t see my period before till I stop breastfeeding and I normally breastfeed for a year and six months. I have six boys and a girl, that is why I want to have another baby,” she prayed.
Mrs. ihemtuge said her husband would decide if she should take up family planning after the eighth child.
A thirty four year old mother of four, who gave her name as Ezinne, disclosed that her husband refused her taking family planning because he believed it would cause her hemorrhage and maybe death.
Mrs. Ezinne said she took the decision to take the service, so as to protect herself from having many children she would not be able to care of.
“My husband did not agree, I told him, he said No. I took the decision by myself and did it, I’ve been enjoying it,” she stated happily.
Another thirty-eight year old mother of four, Mrs. Chinenye Ehirim, said her mother advised her not to take up FP services for reasons she did not explain to her.
Mrs. Ehirim, also said she had no plans of taking any of the consumables since she was done with child bearing.
“My mum asked me not to do it, that it is not necessary.
“I still don’t have plans of doing family planning because i don’t see anything positive in it,” the 38 year old mother remarked.
A forty year old mother of four, Mrs. Chetachi Ernest, said she had a terrible experience with FP services and would not accept it again.
“After the three months elapsed, I could not get pregnant for three years. The fourth year, I took in, and it was ectopic,” she said with sadness.
Mrs. Ernest said although the side effect might have been from wrong choice of FP method, the trauma from what she went through would not let her take up another.
The Family Planning Coordinator at Nworiebi Health Centre, Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, Mrs. Chioma Umezurike, said that family planning is not the absence of conception, but a measure to space and give birth to children by choice and not by chance.
Mrs. Umezurike commended the increase in the contraceptive acceptance rate in the state, and called on men to encourage their wives to access their preferred family planning services.
“Men don’t agree. Whatever you want to do, you must speak with the husband, if he says no, if you see a woman suffering, advise the woman, do something to protect the woman to be alive for her children,” she commented.
The Family Planning Coordinator advised single and married women from age 18 to access family planning services to help reduce the rate of abortion and its attendant health hazards.
“We have pills from zero to three months. Progestin starts from three months. We have injectables, Long Active Contraceptive Method, three years, five years, implant, IUD, copper three, three twenty, but what we use here is copper 3-2-80,” Mrs. Umezurike enumerated.
A development expert at Nguru Health Center in Aboh Mbaise LGA, Imo State, Mr. Samuel Chima, said that over 8,000 women take up family planning services monthly in the two hundred and ten health care facilities across the 27 LGAs in the state.
Mr. Chima noted that some foreign reproductive health Non Governmental Organizations were partnering the state and federal ministries of health to fund family planning services in the country.
He, however, expressed worry that there were cultural practice, religious and personal beliefs that hinder adoption of contraceptives in homes in Mbaise.
“In Mbaise, when a woman gives birth to ten children, they kill a goat for you. Catholic members frown at FP services, they recommend natural methods. Some women belive that when they take FP services, it moves to their heart or they have a swollen stomach,” he stated.
Mr. Chima added that the Federal Government had commenced an in-reach programme to ensure that family planning services were taken to women in hard to reach areas.
“Some women will take up FP services, it will have side effects, while in some others, it will not.
“The three side effects are: heavy bleeding, spotting; some won’t see their menses at all, it is normal.
“If it doesn’t stop, it means the choice you made didn’t work well for you,” he advised.
The development expert decried the negative impact of the COVID-19 lock down on reproductive health, noting that it increased sexual activities among couples, hindered women from accessing family planning services and also reduced the quantity of foreign donor services received into the country.
He therefore called on the Federal Government to think and create a means for the country to produce its own health care consumables, should the developed countries decide to stop funding such.
Buttressing the health benefits of family planning, the Director of Public Health, Imo State Ministry of Health, Dr. Austin Ikeji identified family planning as a veritable tool for population control.
Dr. Ikeji, who is a family health physician, decried the low uptake of family planning consumables in the state despite the high rate of contraceptive knowledge.
According to the Director, a survey by the Demographic Health Survey reveals that the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate at the national level is 27%, while that of Imo State is 10.9%.
‘’When you have births that are clustered, you lose the opportunity of planning. It is an intervention that is for the good of the woman, the child, the family, the society and the globe, and should be encouraged,’’ Dr. Ikeji canvassed.
The family health physician further described family planning as a positive interventionary approach to economic, social and maternal and child health improvement, and urged women to take advantage of the free services.
“The cultural institution where the man is the ultimate approver of everything in the family including for the wife, as much as the body is the woman’s own, is an issue.
“Women should get empowered in taking charge when it concerns their bodies or health, the Director argued.
Dr. Ikeji, therefore, encouraged women of child bearing age to go for Family Planning services, as it would help to reduce the number of unsafe abortion, prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and also empower them by making them control the number and timing of their children to improve their own future and that of their families.
According to the National Library of Medicine 2012, Nigeria, with her current demographics and without intervention, is perceived to double her population of over 150 million people in 22years.
It states that for family planning to move forward in Nigeria, a joint effort is needed, with the government taking a leadership role in promoting the use of family planning and ensuring that stake holders take individual responsibility seriously.