By Niyi Akande
Demands for Family Planning in Osun State is said to be on the increase, a development traced to the current economic hardship ravaging the country.
Before the current surge in the number of house wives taking up family planning methods, it was learnt that, women interested in taking up various methods, have been approaching different facilities across the state unaccompanied by their spouses.
But speaking with journalists during a visit to Oke Baale Primary Health Centre, Osogbo, a Service Provider, who also the Chief Nursing Officer and Reproductive Health Coordinator for Osogbo Local Government, Suliyat Omolaja, said more men were coming with their wives to take up family planning.
Speaking further during the visit, which was part of a 3-day training on Media Advocacy for Family Planning in Osun State supported by The Challenge of Initiatives, Omolaja said beside housewives that were coming for family planning, more unmarried women have also been coming to seek for her services.
She said, “In the last one year, the rate of single ladies and married women accepting family planning methods here has increased.
Some men are coming with their spouses for Family Planning and we have been encouraging more men to come for family planning with their wives.
“Family planning is very important and this is what our mobilisers have been telling both men and women whenever they go out for outreach.”
Shedding more light during an interview with The PUNCH on Friday, the Osun State Family Planning Coordinator, Ololade Abatan, said current economic realities must have been the cause for the rise in demands for family planning in the state.
He said, “In the last one year, considering the situation of the economy, more women are flowing to the facilities to take up family planning methods.
“We need little effort to push them now than before due to the situation of the country. The orientation that some men have about women becoming promiscuous after taking up the method needs to be worked on.
“Our men need to support our women in taking up a method. Women are not meant to be promiscuous because of family planning methods.”
Speaking on the importance of Family Planning, Abatan said availability of different methods was to ensure peace, understanding and collaboration between husband and wife.
She also dismissed the myth that once a woman takes up Family Planning method, she may become promiscuous, noting that “So, it does not mean that once a woman takes up family planning method, you have given her the licence to go out and be promiscuous. We are talking about the peace and effective management of the home.
“We are appealing to men to endeavour to support their wives to take up family planning method.”
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