…Says 13% mCPR not acceptable
By IJEOMA UKAZU
With Nigeria falling below the required modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate, mCPR in Sub-Saharan region of 24 percent, stakeholders have raised concern and demand for improve funding for family planning.
Making this known in Abuja at a 3-day capacity building workshop for editors and OAPs organised by Pathfinder International, one of the facilitators from Gombe State, Mr Chima Azubuike said, currently, of the estimated 42 million women of reproductive age, only 14 percent use a modern contraceptive, adding that about 10.6 million women who have a need for family planning but do not have access to modern contraceptive.
According to him, Nigeria has some exist gaps hampering the mCPR target in Nigeria, “the gaps are limited provision of family planning services across public and private facilities due to inherent health systems challenges and frequent stock out of commodities.
“Limited inclusion of family planning services in health benefits packages of National and State health insurance schemes.”
Azubuike urged sexual and reproductive health advocates, stakeholders and government be committed to issues of family planning in order to reduce maternal mortality in the country.
Also speaking at the workshop, the Country Director Nigeria, Pathfinder International, Dr. Amina Aminu Dorayi said, “A woman in her reproductive age is either wanting pregnancy or stopping pregnancy. It is part of our lives as women or an adolescent girl in her reproductive age.
“For us at Pathfinder, is not just about stopping or having children, it is about our individual reproductive health goals. If you decide to have three children, we advocate that they are well spaced, so they can be healthy and for the mother to achieve her individual goal in life.”
Dorayi said the onus to control birth lies in the hands of the woman as most family planning methods usually use the physiological processes of ovulation and menstrual cycle, though research is ongoing to develop more family planning methods for men in order for them to have more options other than condoms and vasectomy.