Family planning: The unmet need

By JECKONIA OTIENO

With the population of the world hitting the seven billion mark, there is a dire need to plan families all round the world due to the shrinking resources, which have to be shared by the ever-increasing population.

Closer home, in Kenya, the population continues to grow at a rate which is fast and this can be attributed to a variety of factors. Despite the massive campaign by the Government and other family planning organisations for people to plan their families, it is still difficult to because of the unmet needs.

Unmet needs means many women would like to use contraceptives but are not able to access family planning services. This is caused by total inaccessibility of the services or unavailability of the contraceptives.

Unavailability of contraceptives is a big issue in the country, even when the women wish to plan their families. In a 2009 report by the Guttmacher Institute in New York, if all women who wanted to avoid pregnancy were using modern contraceptives, then the number of unintended pregnancies in developing countries would fall from 75 million to 22 million every year. This would not only mean fewer unplanned births and also less unsafe abortions and maternal deaths.

Many Pregnancies

Chief Eugene Mwashi of Eregi location in Kakamega says that out of ten women you meet in his area, two will be expectant. When asked about whether the women have heard about family planning, he says they know but most access to contraceptives is an issue, while some of the women go for them secretly without telling their spouses.

"The accessibility of family planning services needs to be enhanced because life has become expensive and people should have children that they can comfortably care for," suggests the Mwashi.

Olive Wangari, a librarian, is married but says she has not considered using family planning. She says that she has heard so much about the various methods but still does not believe that she is ready to use them. The mother of one states that she will start using them when necessary because for now she still wants to give birth to more children.

The need for family planning is also rife among the younger unmarried women. Mary Onyango notes that she constantly uses the emergency pill just in case. Even though she insists on using a condom every time she engages in sex, the pill comes as a precautionary measure.

Asked why she is not keen on using other methods like the coil, or intra-uterine devices, Mary says she does not have much time to get these because of her busy work schedule.

"I use the natural methods and it has worked for me," says Wangari.

Gladys Moraa from Kuria has five children, most of whom she says she did not plan for. Being eight kilometres from the nearest health centre, the middle-aged woman says she has more pressing matters to take of instead of just thinking about where to get contraceptives

Moraa says: "I just have enough time to toil for my children, so if you tell me to walk so many kilometres to get family planning services then I have to make a decision between the two, to weigh which is more important."

From Samburu, Susan Lenakio who has two children after three years in marriage says her husband wants more children, as that is what their culture states. She says that trying to reason with him on these matters would be viewed with suspicion and if she does not agree to have more children then he might marry another woman to bear the children.

"He would most likely accuse me of infidelity if I suggest that we go for family planning," observes Lenakio.

The programmes director at Family Health Options Kenya, Muraguri Muchira, says there will always be need for family planning as long as there are births.

Muchira says the journey for Kenya has been long and winding but is glad now that family planning is official government policy. Currently, notes Muchira, only 46 percent of women aged between 15 and 49 plan their families. Out of this percentage, 39 percent use modern methods while the remaining number uses traditional methods.

He notes that there are regions where contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) is very poor and he attributes these challenges to lack of knowledge, lack of capacity in most healthcare facilities around the country, accessibility, quality of health services in government institutions, cultural and religious reasons.