WCD: Group says accurate information will mitigate unplanned pregnancy
Chima Azubuike
Executive Director, Development Communications Network, Akin Jimoh, on Saturday, said access to accurate information has greater tendency of mitigating unplanned pregnancy.
Jimoh stated this while commemorating this year’s World Contraception Day (WCD), with the theme ‘Be safe Not Sorry’ which envisions that every pregnancy in the world should be planned.
World Contraception Day is centered on improving awareness of contraception in order to enable young people most especially women and girls make informed decisions with their sexual and reproductive health.
He said women and girls deserve access to quality and accurate information on safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable contraception of choice.
Jimoh said, “Communities with access to sexual and reproductive health services and information historically have been known to delay childbearing in times of fiscal uncertainty such as the COVID pandemic presented.”
However, several literatures present an increase in unplanned pregnancies during the outbreak of the pandemic due to a gap in knowledge by many, as well as heightened barriers occasioned by the COVID restrictions.
On her part, Deputy Team Lead, Delivering Innovation for Self Care with Society for Family Health, Roselyn Odeh, noted that due to poverty a lot of women are deprived of information.
“Many Nigerian women and girls still face extreme poverty and many still do not have access to information and therefore not aware of their SRH rights and how to maintain their sexual and reproductive health. Knowledge of SRH self-care approaches can improve SRH outcomes.
“When women are knowledgeable about options to prevent unplanned pregnancies, their practice of rights and choices is enhanced. With regards to reproductive health and family planning, the drive towards creating awareness and demand on certain self-care options like the (DMPA-SC) self-injectable method of family planning provides an opportunity to address some of the issues women face pertaining to SRH rights.”
Odeh added, “This is because the option presents women with a family planning method that they can learn to use themselves and at their convenience. It is easily accessible, can be self-administered and as a method, DMPA-SC provides three months of protection from unplanned pregnancy.”
