Jigawa State records only 3.6 per cent contraceptive prevalence rate, the director of the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Shehu Sambo, has said.
He stated this during a three days’ media engagement on family planning organised by DevComs.
He said there is still a need for awareness on family planning in Jigawa State. He advised parents to plan for their families with a view to enhancing the well-being of children.
The programme which is the TCI project (the challenge initiative), sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was focused on family planning and child spacing for the betterment of family well-being.
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The state programme manager – Jigawa TCI, Ankale Kongude, said the challenge initiative is a platform that enables state governments to scale up high-impact family planning approaches for the urban poor.
He said TCI represents a highly innovative approach to development aid intended to strengthen the understanding of scale, impact, efficiency, and sustainability.
Meanwhile, some health officials in the state said there is an increased demand for family planning services in Jigawa State.
They said this is however largely because of fear of the risk of having unwanted pregnancy among adolescents and youths in the state.
In Kudai Primary Healthcare facility, women visit every Thursday of the week to demand the family planning or child spacing services.
A nurse at the facility who preferred anonymity said family planning is crucial and protects both married and unmarried women from unwanted pregnancies.
A woman who came for the services, and does not want her name mentioned, said she received contraceptive pills and didn’t have any side effects.
She said, “I do family planning because of my health and the health of my children. It is difficult to train many children nowadays because of the economic hardship.
“I decided to do the planning with my husband so that we can train and educate our children in a better way.”
Another 19-year-old woman in the facility said she has two children. “This is the first time I am doing family planning and it is with the consent of my husband,” she said.
In Sakwaya PHC, inadequate family planning pills forced many women to visit PHC centres in Dutse, five Kilometres away from Sakwaya community.
Hauwa Ahmad Yusuf, a health care service provider in the PHC, said due to inadequate family planning items, they buy from the market and sell it to those that can afford the commodities as the demand is high at the facility.
She said the challenge they have at the facility is inadequate family planning commodities, and sometimes bleeding in cases of new clients, adding that this was however a normal occurrence.
She said the bleeding may last for 15 to 16 days thereby leading to complaints by the clients.
“We enlighten them on the side effects of the various family planning types, and also tell them the benefits,” she added.
