Hajia Salamatu Seidu in a discussion with Francisca Darko, community health nurse
When Family Planning started in Ghana in the early 1990s, little did health professionals envisage the challenge of dispelling deep rooted cultural myths about the use of modern contraceptives would be a daunting task.
Rumors and misconceptions about modern contraceptives which most of the time is linked to tradition and the fear of side effects has remained a major setback in the uptake of modern family planning methods especially in rural areas of Ghana where this phenomenon is prevalent.
These coupled with pressure from husbands and in-laws on women to give birth to more children, often between very little intervals, have compounded the progress of modern contraceptive usage in rural areas.
“I want to use some – modern contraceptives- but I am the only wife of my husband and I don’t want to become barren,” said 35 year-old, Habiba Alhassan, a mother of five.
Habiba who hails from Pobaga, a community in Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East Region, is one of the women health professionals in the capital have tried convincing to use modern contraceptive to no avail.
Although Habiba has heard the benefits of modern contraceptives she is reluctant in signing up for any of the methods.
The Upper East has a fertility rate of 4.9 per cent, calling for the need for effective family planning methods to ensure women space out the births of their children or limit the number of children they give birth to.
However, after years of introducing family planning in the region, the practice is not receiving the expected impact. Just 23 per cent of women both married and sexually active unmarried women have access to contraceptives.
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Marie Stopes, in collaboration with the municipal health directorate has rolled out free family planning services in some selected areas with beneficiaries coming from communities like Pobaga and Dagmeo but modern contraceptive uptake is still below the municipality’s family planning target.
Over all the Family planning up take of the municipality has reduced from 22.5 per cent in 2016 mid-year report to 19.8 per cent in the first half of 2017 which falls below the 30 per cent family planning target for the municipality.
Hajia Salamatu Seidu, principal nursing officer of the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate, Family Planning Unit, said over the years health professionals in the region have tried their best to dispel such ideas about contraceptive usage among rural women in order to increase family Planning coverage in the municipality.
“We try to convince them by explain to them the side effects and everything and also assured them that they can have children after using the family planning method before they decide which method to use but some of them are just afraid to use it because of fear of infertility and some personal reasons,” she said.
She said their advocacy and sensitization of rural women and the free distribution of family planning products to women has had little positive change in the perception of women in the municipality concerning the complications in using family planning methods.
“The community health officers also explain to the women that although it may have some complications it does not cause infertility as some people perceive,” she added.
Francisca Darko, principal community health nurse, the in-charge of the Family planning unit of the Bolga Health Center which serves communities like Dagmeo and Pobaga, indicated her team of health officers is faced with the daily task of counseling women with challenges of modern contraception usage.
“Most of them come with so many complaints like spotting, bleeding intermittently and infertility,” she said, “But we tell them it is normal and that with time they will feel better but if they continue complaining we refer them to the gynecologist”.
She said the unit has however had some successes in using family planning methods including the pills, injectables and implants after deciding to sensitize the entire family and not just the women.
“Now when we go, we do not only target the woman but the household, which includes the husbands and the in-laws, we also take the opportunity of durbars to sensitize the men on why they need to give approval for their wives to adopt a modern contraception and support them through the process.
Nurse Darko said the unit has record of women who has had successful family planning methods and they are often used as testimonials during durbars.
Hajia Seidu believes the negative perception about modern contraception will not change overnight indicating it is a gradual thing that must be sustained with continuous education.
“We are not up there yet but I believe we are making some headway,” she said.
From Jamila Akweley Okertchiri, Pobaga, Upper East