Experts advocate improved access to contraceptives

Speaking during the World Contraceptive Day, experts called for an increase in contraceptive use among sexually active people in Nigeria, saying it is critical to reducing unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. According to the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2013) about 23 percent of teenage girls between age 15 and 19 are already mothers […]

Speaking during the World Contraceptive Day, experts called for an increase in contraceptive use among sexually active people in Nigeria, saying it is critical to reducing unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.
According to the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2013) about 23 percent of teenage girls between age 15 and 19 are already mothers or pregnant with their first child while half of the women age 25-49 years were already married by age 18 and 61 percent were married by age 20.
In a statement signed by the Development Communications (DevComs) Network, it noted that the sexual and reproductive behavioural pattern of Nigerians show that women and men tend to initiate sexual activity before marriage.
The statement reads in part, “these lifestyle, coupled with high fertility and low contraceptive prevalence rate typically lead to unintended pregnancies, close births spacing and high-risk births.
“Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio currently stands at 576 per 100,000 live births and a World Health Organisation (WHO) report titled ‘Trends in Maternal Mortality’ had reported in May this year that Nigeria lost about 40, 000 women due to child birth in 2013, a figure which was second to India’s alone,” the statement said.  
However, in another statement released by Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), the Advocacy Advisor, Mrs. Charity Ibeawuchi said, “the young persons who form the majority among the women of reproductive age should be encouraged to space pregnancies and childbirths.
According to her, the adolescents and youths in Nigeria are faced with gross challenges of sexual and reproductive ill-health as a result of their inability to access relevant information and services.
She added that adolescent girls are more vulnerable to health problems arising from under-age child bearing, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion, sexual exploitation and abuse which consequently contribute to the high maternal morbidity and mortality.
“With low contraceptive prevalence rate of 10% and high fertility rate of 5.5,  there is strong indication that only few Nigerian women are using modern family planning methods for spacing or limiting pregnancies. “A woman’s ability to space and limit her pregnancies has a direct impact on her health and well-being as well as on the outcome of each pregnancy,” said WHO.