Nigeria: Family Planning Saves Lives – We Need to Spread the Message to Men and Women

1 JULY 2021
By Tijani Salami

A year ago, I met a 26-year-old breastfeeding mother who was a graduate student. She was married with three children; the youngest was just eight months old. She started using oral contraceptives after the return of her menses following the birth, but she hid the pills from her husband. When he discovered them, he forced her to throw them away.

Not long after that, she conceived again. Three months later, she had a miscarriage caused by stress. She was admitted into hospital with infection and blood loss. Thankfully, she survived, and her husband has since changed his attitude towards contraceptive use.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202107010580.html

Curbing Unsafe Abortion, Maternal Deaths Through Family Planning In Nigeria

The Society For Media Advocacy On Health Nigeria
June 27, 2021

Conception and childbearing is the priority of several couples in many African countries, like Nigeria. However, it costs a lot of time, energy, and fund to care for and raise a child. It is much easier if you have the support of your partner and a supportive family.

Unfortunately, Nigeria’s high fertility over the last few years has not reduced as expected, despite efforts by international organisation like Pathfinder International to ensure availability, accessibility of family planning commodities, consumables across the country.

Continued: https://leadership.ng/curbing-unsafe-abortion-maternal-deaths-through-family-planning-in-nigeria/

27.06.2021

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maternal mortality

maternal mortality ratio

Pathfinder International

Society For Media Advocacy On Health Nigeria

Sustainable Development Goals

Nigeria – Family Planning: Benefits Of Pregnancy, Child Birth By Choice

May 1, 2021

Recently, Austine Ohenhen, a man who fled his home in
Benin, Edo State, on hearing that his wife, Rita, had given birth to a set of
quadruplets blamed the current economic situation in the country for his
action.

Austin and his wife, Rita already had five children before the arrival of the
quadruplets. The former engineer now turned farmer told the media that he did
not have the money to take up the huge additional responsibilities the birth of
the new babies would put on him.

Continued: https://leadership.ng/family-planning-benefits-of-pregnancy-child-birth-by-choice/

01.05.2021

unplanned pregnancies

World Health Organisation

Kenya – Teen pregnancy is a menace destroying the future young girls and needs to be addressed

By Doris Kathia and Purity Nthiana
May 1, 2021

Globally there are 214 million women with an unmet need for contraception. The unmet need for family planning remains high in Kenya with about one in four married women not able to access contraceptives.

Only three in every 10 adolescents and young women are using a modern contraceptive method.

Continued: https://citizentv.co.ke/blogs/opinion-teen-pregnancy-is-a-menace-destroying-the-future-young-girls-and-needs-to-be-addressed-10889314/

Pakistan – A strange paradox

Rizwana Naqvi
April 23, 2021

To say that we live in a patriarchal society would be a cliché, but how else can we describe a society where women can’t even make decisions regarding their own body, and regarding when and how many children to have.

Feminists have for years been advocating for equal rights for women not only in education and health but in all spheres of life. And when it comes to women’s rights, reproductive health is an important segment where women need to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, according to the State of World Population 2019 report, Pakistan’s maternal mortality (death due to pregnancy-related complication) rate was still as high as 178 women per 100,000. Though it has improved from 276 in 2008 and 375 per 100,000 in 1995, it is still quite high, as compared to other countries in the region.

Continued: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/824468-a-strange-paradox

Jamaica’s Teen Mother Crisis Gets Government Attention.

By Jonathan Mason
November 30, 2020

KINGSTON, Jamaica–November 29th,2020–HIV/AIDS Officer at the United Nations Population Fund Sub-Regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Denise Chevannes, is urging interested parties to focus on adolescent pregnancy prevention, as one of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She noted that COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem of adolescent pregnancy and has left more girls susceptible to teenage pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/jamaicas-teen-mother-crisis-gets-government-attention/

Kenyan Reproductive Health Nurse Explains The Chilling Impact Of The Global Gag Rule & How She Defends Women’s Health

November 5, 2020

Since Ronald Reagan first implemented the Mexico City Policy in 1984, also known as the “Global Gag Rule”, every Republican President elected since then has signed this into law. The policy blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion, or expand abortion services.

But when Trump took office in January 2017, two days after the historic Women’s March, he not only signed the GGR (which President Obama did not), he implemented an expanded version which impacted not just family planning NGOs, but all U.S. global health assistance, increasing the amount of money affected by the policy from roughly $600 million to about $12 billion in estimated planned funding in 2018. The new iteration covered work unrelated to family planning, including projects related to HIV/AIDS, nutrition, malaria, water and sanitation, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Continued: https://www.girltalkhq.com/kenyan-reproductive-health-nurse-explains-the-chilling-impact-of-the-global-gag-rule-how-she-defends-womens-health/

Indonesia – Safe abortion crucial for women’s reproductive health

STEVIE EMILIA, THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta / Tue, September 29, 2020

Abortion – safe or unsafe, legal or illegal – has existed throughout history. Yet, it continues to be the most sensitive and controversial issue in reproductive health.

The WHO has disclosed that an average of 73.3 million – safe and unsafe – abortions took place worldwide per year between 2015 and 2019, with the rate of abortions being higher in developing regions than in developed ones.

Continued: https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/09/29/safe-abortion-crucial-for-womens-reproductive-health.html

Marie Stopes Uganda speaks out on COVID-19, population growth

Julius Businge, The Independent
July 14, 2020

As Uganda joined the rest of the world to
commemorate the World Population Day on July 11, Marie Stopes Uganda, a health
focused international organization working in Uganda urged the government and
other actors to work towards having a healthy and productive population to
achieve social economic transformation.

This year’s day commemoration came at a time when the country and the rest of
the world governments were relaxing restrictions put in place earlier to combat
the spread of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Uganda had by press time,
recorded a total of 1,029 coronavirus cases with 0 deaths.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.ug/marie-stopes-uganda-speaks-out-on-covid-19-population-growth/

14.07.2020

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News

Carole Sekimpi

Covid-19 and abortion

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Marie Stopes Uganda

Peter Ddungu

sexual and reproductive health services

Bangladesh – Increased budget must come with policy changes, utilisation

Experts hail allocation in family planning, but wary of planning

July 06, 2020
Nilima Jahan

The budget allocation in health and family welfare has seen a steady increase in the past few years. This year, the amount increased by 13.66 percent, standing at Tk 29,247 crore.

Although the increased allocation appears to be a step in the right direction, family planning experts believe that the higher budgets are not being utilised in a planned manner.

Continued: https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/increased-budget-must-come-policy-changes-utilisation-1925709