Oghome Emembo is the administration, finance and support person for the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) FCT field office. In this interview with ENE OSANG, she explains the importance of family planning in Nigeria, adding that it affects every sector in the county
NURHI’s on the spot FP programme’ in Dutse
This outreach on Family Planning (FP) is coordinated by the Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) and this particular service is the on the spot family planning services at the slum area in Bwari Area Council called Dutse Makaranta which encourages families to come out and access family planning services. Dutse Makaranta slum area is chosen because it is a catchment area under the area council where the NURHI project operates in the FCT.
In the FCT, NURHI works in AMAC and Bwari area councils. So as the programme rounds up we have the mandate to saturate all the slum areas in the area councils and address the need for family planning.
In this quarter of year five of the NURHI project, outreach is an ongoing thing, it is continuous. We have been on this since December last year and it has been on a monthly bases and this kind of community outreach for instance holds for two days. We will continue again in the month of March with series of outreaches which is sometimes four times in a week or everyday in the week like that but it is ongoing because it is our agenda and mandate for this year.
Dutse Makaranta resident’s and acceptance of FP
It is really encouraging and the level of family planning acceptance generally has improved as a result of the high level of advocacy and demand creation activities that the NURHI project has conducted ever since the inception of the project. The level of awareness and enlightenment on family planning has improved because some of the biases and misinformation on family planning has been addressed; through sensitization meetings NURHI have held before now through awareness health talks and even through social mobilisers who are located in the slums to refer clients to facilities.
Dutse Makaranta women are receptive and there’s a lot of conviction by those who are cancelled and actually make up their minds to chose a method or the other do it with excitement because they are well informed and have been put through the fliers, the IEC materials and they are also told exactly what it entails and they appreciate the benefits of family planning so it is encouraging.
Convincing families against FP side effects
NURHI have been able to make people understand that the side effect of family planning are not necessarily illnesses or sickness but they are normal side effects that they should be told about at the instance of counseling before they go for any method. So, we have very low incidences right now of clients who just go to a clinic and get a service and start complaining and making a lot of noise about the side effects. Today they are informed before they get the method so it doesn’t come as a shock anymore because they are aware of what they are going into. FP is not an illness, it doesn’t affect health in anyway but it is just a side effect as a result of a particular method and it is not a problem so we have been able to manage people with such fear.
Course of pregnancy after taking FP
Most times women who get pregnant while on FP are those who took the tablets method. As far as tablets and pills are concerned, they have a nickname called ‘forget me not’. Pills are not meant for forgetful people because they require a high level of discipline and it takes a very religious person who is used to routine to take pills. This is because on a specific day or manner you miss one pill, there is probability of pregnancy, you take it at the wrong time, there is a possibility of pregnancy so when you hear people make such comments that they were taking pills and they still got pregnant you would want question them if they were informed about how to take this method and, if you were informed did you obey what you were told because it is called forget me not? It takes a high level of discipline to use pills for family planning.
Reasons FP became a front burner issue.
The need for family planning is not something that has to be defended or requires science; it is obvious from developed countries like in Europe and American even China and other countries that have advanced over time. In every aspect of development you will see that there is a maintained trend and culture of family planning.
Contraception is not and should not be an option; it should be done because the benefit of family planning to the man, the woman, society and country at large cannot be over emphasized.
If you look at population dynamics in the issue of development today you will see that family planning is key. For instance; how does a man saddled with six children with a low level of income cater for them without stressing out? We know education is a must do now, you want your children to be better than you, and if you want them to be trained you need the resources to train them so why lay yourself down with so much burden when you cannot train them and then the result of that would be a ripple effect on the society with drop out children, children hawkers, robbery, prostitution, child abuse etc.
People trying to make ends meet and when they try to support their parents you will see that they are at some standard of living that is not acceptable and not easy. Child spacing would help us reduce these social problems and ensure that a man can actually plan his finances to take care of each child per time. Family planning is not about dictating for couples how many children they should have or not, it is about spacing them and it’s about convenience to have your children by choice and not by chance that is why family planning is necessary because it would help Nigeria’s development and it would affect the level of unemployment too, honestly speaking family planning can be tied to every sector of the society and its advantages cannot be over emphasised.
The best method of FP
There is no best choice of family planning, a lot of factors are considered before a woman takes a particular method. A woman has to go to a health facility and meet with a trained councilor, her medical history will be looked at, bio-data will be taken and so many questions will be asked. It is from all that she will be presented the different method of family planning and she is asked to chose so what is good for Mrs. A might not be good for Mrs. B and vice versa.
Governments commitment to FP
There has been enough support this is obvious from the support NURHI get from the ministry of health on projects, as well as collaborating with different donor agencies, there are commodities made available to states and so on but the challenge that has remained with governments support is the lack of funding for consumables for family planning.
When we say family planning is free, we need to ask if it is totally free when a woman still pays for cotton wool and hand gloves exactly what we are talking about. We are pleading with federal government of Nigeria to fund family planning to a level where women should not pay a dime to asses these services. Government is trying but should do better in the area of providing family planning consumables.
