A survey conducted in Anambra State on the use of family planning methods by couples to space their children or prevent pregnancy has shown that one out of three births in the state is unintended.
Principal Investigator for the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 Nigeria(PMA2020), Dr Elizabeth Omoluabi stated this yesterday at a workshop of the group for the dissemination of the result of the survey and presentation to the state government.
Omoluabi stated that the reason is the lack of patronage from members of the public for family planning packages and kits at public health centres.
She advised couples to make good use of the availability of the family planning packages provided by the state government for free of charge to make life meaningful for themselves by not having unwanted babies or having more children than they can carter for.
“Imagine walking along the road, and one out of every three children you meet on the way was given birth to by mistake of their parents. The tendency is that the children may not be well taken care of because the parents did not budget for him or her.
“Our 2017 survey in Anambra shows that unlike that of 2016, government has provided family planning pills, kits and professionals to offer advice to people, but the people are not patronizing these facilities.
“Our overall assessment is that the Anambra State government has done its bit of providing healthcare professionals, and also the pills and other kits that can help family planning, but the people don’t take advantage of this, and that is why they are giving birth to babies they do not want.”
Omoluabi told participants at the workshop that the finding is that parents were relying more on withdrawal method of family planning, which is not very safe, while stating that for this to be overcome; more awareness has to be created among families.
Highlight of the event was the presentation of the PMA 2017 Anambra-R2 survey result to Chief Willie Obiano, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Joe Akabuike.
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