Clement Ekong 
A coordinated approach and intervention by the Adamawa State Government, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Development Communications (DevComs), and other partner agencies in the provision of contraception drugs and methods, family planning has now become a household name as many women including men have now fully embraced the process as lifesaving.
This is because recent findings by the New Telegraph indicated that the previous lack of interventions by the related agencies in enlightening and sensitizing citizens on the advantages of family planning has had a devastating effect on so many lives, especially women and children.
Govt involvement
However, the recent involvement of the government, development partners, donor agencies and other humanitarian bodies in supporting the process has potentially improved the efficiency and achievement of healthier results.
A visit by our correspondent to Nasarawo in Demsa Local Government Area of the state and its environs revealed that the process is not only a household name but has a total acceptance by the people, both young and old.
This call has gone to religious and traditional institutions at all levels in the state to embrace the process and join in the enlightenment campaigns.
Beneficiaries
A beneficiary of the process, Alhaji Umaru Yusuf, who spoke on the advantages of family planning, noted that the benefits of the process cannot be over emphasized and called on those yet to be part of the process to key-in and plan for their family’s future.
While expressing satisfaction on the benefits, Umaru Yusuf said: “As a Muslim, I have served the life of my wife and children from the embarrassment of bearing children every year.” According to him: “As a father of six children, it has not been easy to maintain my family effectively especially in view of the present economic situation in the country that is biting everyone hard.”
While calling on the people to reciprocate the gesture, he appealed to the government to provide enough drugs and other contraception tools to the Primary Health Care Centres across the state to convince the beneficiaries to take the risk of purchasing the medicines in open markets because there are a lot of fake drugs in the markets.
Also speaking, Mrs Iklime Usman, a student and a mother of one, said: “I used implant method for a year to enable me complete my secondary education,” stressing that the method has enable her to space her children while in school as well as prevent her from the risk of maternal mortality, which many of the people in her age group are suffering now.
According to her: “I feel happy because the process has educated me to a large extent, and I have also tried in my small way to educate other women on how to involve themselves in family planning.
“I want to thank my husband for his understanding by taking me to the Primary Health Care Centre, Nasarawo, his encouragement has made me a happy person. I equally urge husbands to encourage their wives to avail themselves of this golden opportunity.”
Unprecedented attendance
On a visit by our correspondent to the Nasarawo-Demsa Primary Health Care Centre, he came across a large number of patients being attended to – a development the people said had never happened before.
The Facility Manager of the health care centre, Mrs Rose Manesah, believes that family planning is good for every family. “As it’s very good for child spacing and gives mothers the ample opportunity to feed well and improve on their health status.
It is not only to stop pregnancy as wrongly speculated by many uninformed people,” she said. Manesah, while appreciating the level of patronage gained by the centre recently, explained that as at September ending 210 patients were recorded with 99 acceptors while 111 came on their own for counselling.
Briefing our correspondent on the unprecedented respond, Mrs Praise Uriaha, who is the Service Provider, Family Planning at the centre, applauded the efforts of husbands who encourage their wives to take up the family planning process, adding that not less than five patients visit the centre daily for counselling and medications. Uriaha lamented that the present participation of patients had revealed the inadequate commodities available to the centre.
Following this, she appealed to the government and other partners to assist in the supply of more drugs and other contraception methods as some of the patients are now being referred to the Specialist Hospital due to the shortage of the drugs for them.
The Service Provider called on religious leaders to avoid the slogan of: “God gives, God will provide”, but rather should plan for their family’s future and the health of the mothers.
She thanked the staff for their participation in the sensitization exercise which has hitherto improved the lives of mothers and children.
Our correspondent learnt that with the participation of healthcare service providers, the insufficient funding and last mile distribution of drugs and others must be addressed in order to meet the urgent need of the people ready to imbibe family planning.
WHO and family planning
Family planning allows people to attain their desired number of children, if any, and to determine the spacing of their pregnancies. It is achieved through use of contraceptive methods and the treatment of infertility.
According to statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO), among the 1.9 billion women of reproductive age group (15–49 years) worldwide in 2021, 1.1 billion have a need for family planning; of these, 874 million are using modern contraceptive methods, and 164 million have an unmet need for contraception.
The proportion of the need for family planning satisfied by modern methods, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator 3.7.1, has stagnated globally at around 77% from 2015 to 2022 but increased from 52% to 58% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Only one contraceptive method, condoms, can prevent both a pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Use of contraception advances the human right of people to determine the number and spacing of their children. In 2022, global contraceptive prevalence of any method was estimated at 65% and of modern methods at 58.7% for married or in a union woman.
Although there are many different types of contraception, not all types are appropriate for all situations. The most appropriate method of birth control depends on an individual’s overall health, age, frequency of sexual activity, number of sexual partners, desire to have children in the future, and family history of certain diseases.
Ensuring access for all people to their preferred contraceptive methods advances several human rights including the right to life and liberty, freedom of opinion, expression and choice and the right to work and education, as well as bringing significant health and other benefits.
Modern family planning methods are further categorised into three subgroups: short-term methods (the pill, condoms, the locational amenorrhoea method (LAM), diaphragms, foaming tablets, jelly, and the emergency contraceptive pill), long term methods (injectables, implants and IUDs) and permanent methods.
