Locals shun family planning – survey
Some of the expectant women receive tips on antenatal care at Arua Regional Referral Hospital. PHOTO | FELIX WAROM OKELLO
What you need to know:
- The poor uptake of family planning services is also blamed on lack of male involvement in decision making, traditional and religious beliefs and accessibility to the services.
Many women across West Nile Sub-region continue to shun family planning for various reasons, a survey indicates.
During a dissemination meeting of Performance Monitoring for Action on family planning organised by the Ministry of Health and Reproductive Health Uganda on Monday, it was disclosed that only 41 per cent of the total population of about 2.9 million people in the sub-region use family planning.
While presenting the 2021 findings, Prof Fredrick Makumbi of Makerere University, which conducted the survey, said there is a huge gap for unmet needs for family planning services in communities, especially in rural areas.
Gaps
“We found that 37 percent of people here have unmet needs for family planning because of their strong religious and cultural beliefs that bar them from using both modern and traditional methods. This should be reversed because of the growing population,” he said.
The low uptake follows several interventions by government and other organisations to scale up family planning.
According to the survey, 34 percent use modern methods, while 6.3 percent use traditional ones.
Dr Betty Kyadondo, the director of family health at National Population Council, said a high population derails development.
“The cost of raising many children is always high and if we continue to have the high fertility rates, families will break down because of responsibilities,” Dr Kyadondo said.
“We should ensure that families have few and manageable children where they can have sound education and live a quality life, rather than having too much and abandon them for others to take responsibility,” she added.
According to the report, Yumbe is one of the districts with lowest uptake where only 20 percent out of the total population of 663,600 people uses family planning.
The district health officer, Dr Alfred Yayi, confirmed the development, saying: “People have a lot of time to make babies because they are not employed and poverty rate is high. Unfortunately, these are not quality children. So let us have children who can be well fed, well-spaced, and educated so that they can in turn help the family.” He called for continuous sensitisation of communities to debunk the myths of family planning methods and religious beliefs that discourage it.
Some couples told Daily Monitor that some of the family planning methods have adverse effects on their health.
The poor uptake of family planning services is also blamed on lack of male involvement in decision making, traditional and religious beliefs and accessibility to the services.
Officials say some men do not want to escort their wives due to the mandatory HIV/Aids tests that are done at the onset of pregnancies. Others hire men to escort their wives.
Some years ago, the Ministry of Health developed a policy on family planning where a pregnant woman is expected to report for antenatal services with her husband and they receive mama kits to motivate them.
Cases of unwanted pregnancies
A baseline survey conducted by Promotion Monitoring Action under Makerere University School of Public Health in 2020, shows that 44 percent of women get unwanted pregnancy in Uganda because they don’t use family planning methods. The report shows that 70 percent of adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years in rural areas get unwanted pregnancies while 51.6 percent of women are in urban areas. It also shows that two out of five women got unwanted pregnancies.
