•A WOMAN and her children after a family planning consultation . Pictrure by Arturo Sanabria

By CLARA KAWIMBE –

FAMILY planning is the practice of controlling the number of children one should have and the intervals between their births particularly, by means of contraceptives or voluntary sterilisation.
According to the 2013-2014 Demographic Health Survey, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for Zambia stood at 5.2 children per woman which is still high for Zambia.
It is against this background that Family Planning should be promoted among all sexually active people as it works to control the fertility levels and eventually the population growth.
Reduced family size and the number of children per woman is broadly favaourable for economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Ndola Central Hospital head of clinical care Sebastian Chinkoyo said Zambia still had a high fertility rate.
High Fertility Rate for Zambia was defined as the total fertility levels of about five children per woman. Therefore, the need to promote family planning among all sexually active people cannot be overemphasised.
Dr Chinkoyo said for Zambia, the ideal TFR should be between two and three children per woman.
“There is need to promote family planning methods among all sexually active people as the expected number of children a women should have is two or three.
“Five children per women is high that is why there is need for health providers to work with the communities and sensitise them on the benefits of using contraceptives and let them know that contraceptives are safe if used consistently and correctly,” said Dr Chinkoyo, who is a Consultant Obstetrician – Gynaecologist.
In Zambia, there are a lot of misconceptions attached to the use of modern family planning methods.
Married couples and those who are single believe that the use of contraceptives can cause complications like infertility.
Twenty-seven-year-old Natasha Mukukami, a mother of three, believes that contraceptives have caused her to have high blood pressure which she never had before she started using contraceptives.
Mrs Mukukami said despite that family planning assisted her to plan and space her children accordingly, she had to suffer from high blood pressure just to achieve her desired number of children that she planned to have with her husband.
But for the 32-year-old woman who did not want to be named, believes that the use of contraceptives has left her barren.
“I have tried to conceive for the past two years but I have not been successful. I suspect that it is because I was using contraceptives for more than 10 years,” she lamented.
She regrets having used contraceptives for a long time, a problem which has now affected her marriage as she is called names by her husband’s relatives.
However, Dr Chinkoyo said that the available temporal family planning methods do not cause infertility.
He said people should know that apart from barrier methods like the use of condoms, contraceptives do not protect against Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
He saud some STIs, if not treated in time, may damage some reproductive organs in men and women resulting in infertility.
He gave an example of chlamydia and gonococcal infections which can lead to blockage of the woman’s fallopian tubes.
Such a woman would then believe that the contraceptives caused the infertility.
Dr Chinkoyo said simultaneous use of condoms with other contraceptives will protect against unwanted pregnancies and STIs including HIV/AIDS.
Dual method of family planning should therefore, be promoted and encouraged among those who are single.
This is why we encourage people to use the dual method which emphasises the use of condoms to help protect one against Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancies.
“We adequately counsel all clients who come for family planning services and explain to them that although contraceptives are able to prevent unwanted pregnancies, they do not protect against STIs including HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Dr Chinkoyo said the hospital had provided contraceptives to all clients seeking the service.
However, Dr Chinkoyo observed that there was information gap between medical practitioners and the communities which lead to men and women shunning modern family planning services.
He said there were two family planning methods which include temporal and permanent contraceptives.
The temporal contraceptive method is one were a woman is able to conceive after stopping using the contraceptives while the permanent one is one where a man or woman is not able to have children after undergoing the same process.
He said the permanent method could be performed on men and women but that, the temporal method was for women.
Family planning does not only reduce the number of unsafe abortions but also helps in reducing rates of unintended pregnancies.
To ensure that every pregnancy is planned, every child is wanted, and every mother has the best chance of survival, the key is family planning which reinforces people’s rights to determine the number and spacing of their children.
Therefore, promotion of family planning and ensuring access to preferred contraceptive methods for men and women, is essential in securing the well-being and autonomy of families, while supporting the health and development of communities. — ZANIS