Richest Lagos women use family planning more – Survey

The richest women in Lagos State are more likely than their poorest counterparts to report using a family planning method. This is the finding from a recent survey by the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020-Nigeria (PMA2020-NG) research team and holds true for both modern methods (pills, condoms, injectables, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants) and traditional […]

The richest women in Lagos State are more likely than their poorest counterparts to report using a family planning method.

This is the finding from a recent survey by the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020-Nigeria (PMA2020-NG) research team and holds true for both modern methods (pills, condoms, injectables, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants) and traditional methods (withdrawal and periodic abstinence).

A statement by Dr. Funmi Ola Olorun of PMA 2020 Nigeria Team said the survey’s results were disseminated recently at the Lagos State Ministry of Health.

The survey showed that 33% of married women in Lagos State aged 15-49 years were using a family planning method.
 The survey also showed that the poorest women were more than twice as likely as the richest women to report that they were not using a family planning method, even though they wished to postpone their next birth for at least two years, were unsure if or when they wanted another child, or already had all the children they wanted.

According to the survey, these disparities between the rich and the poor were of concern, given the state of the Nigerian economy and the obvious fact that those who can least afford an unplanned pregnancy due to their economic status will be the most likely to have one if they remain sexually active and do nothing to avoid becoming pregnant.

It advised that the Lagos State government and family planning stakeholders should find a way to financially assist the poor women to access the family planning method of their choice, so they can decide (along with their partners) if and when to have children.

“This is essential because despite the widespread information that contraception is free, the survey showed that 1 in 10 public facilities and 7 in 10 private facilities charge for family planning services.

The statement said the involvement of the government in particular, will ensure that the socio-economic disadvantage of these poorest women does not push them into further poverty following the addition of another child that they cannot afford to properly look after.

PMA2020 is a mobile-assisted survey that collects data on a regular basis to monitor performance towards the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) goal of reaching 120 million additional women and girls in the poorest countries with life-saving contraceptives. The survey is the third of its kind conducted in Lagos State, and was led by the Centre for Research, Evaluation Resources and Development (CRERD) and Bayero University Kano (BUK).

FP2020 is a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, whether, when, and how many children they want to have and is an outcome of the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning where over 20 governments committed to addressing the policy, financing, delivery and socio-cultural barriers to women accessing contraceptive information, services and supplies.