Experts seek increased contraception acceptance in communities

This December, a coalition of providers—including Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) and Marie Stopes—have reached out to communities in Nyanya, Garki, Gishiri, Dutsen Alhaji and more recently Jabi, offering women freedom to choose from among pills, intrauterine devices, injectibles and implants.“We bring it to their doorstep, so they will […]

This December, a coalition of providers—including Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) and Marie Stopes—have reached out to communities in Nyanya, Garki, Gishiri, Dutsen Alhaji and more recently Jabi, offering women freedom to choose from among pills, intrauterine devices, injectibles and implants.
“We bring it to their doorstep, so they will hear from us,” said Hajara Onubaiya, a family planning provider at Kubwa General Hospital. “Many believe when you do family planning, you put on weight, your husband might not like you, you might start bleeding, and when you die with it you might not go to heaven. There is nothing like that.”
She said religious beliefs, illiteracy and cultural beliefs about women wanting to give birth to every possible child “because they don’t know which child will be governor tomorrow” still hamper access to reproductive health.
Jabi resident, Bridget Ayuba, opted for family planning—for the first time like many other residents—because she “wanted to rest” from child bearing, she said, after talking it over with her husband.
Jacob Riwo showed up at the Jabi outreach to prevent himself having more children. “I have three kids, and my wife is insisting she wants more and she doesn’t want to prevent it,” he said, a lone male among women at the outreach.
He said his own family while growing up had many children. “We suffered. All of us, no graduate because of lack of finance. When you have three, you have to raise them to your own taste, and you know the country we live in now—hardship is too much everywhere.”
Only 14 in 100 women of reproductive age use any contraception method, according to a 2011 MICS survey by the National Bureau of Statistics monitoring the situation of women and children.
And at least 19 in 100 women want contraception but can’t get it.
Ibrahim Kannah, social mobilization officer for NURHI, said the get-ti-together outreach encouraging couples to work together was to “see how we can reduce the rate of maternal mortality, letting women have access to family planning at their doorstep without spending a dime, without even spending N50 on transport by doing it in places where they meet regularly.”