Citing the benefits of using modern contraceptive methods in preventing unplanned pregnancies, a non-governmental organisation, Marie Stopes International Organisation Nigeria, has disclosed that its services to over 2.06 million clients in 2018 averted 8,500 maternal deaths.
The NGO added that through its various channels of providing family planning services to clients such as mobile outreach, MS ladies, MSION clinic, social marketing, public sector support and social franchise, an estimated 710,000 unsafe abortions were also averted.
Reeling out the figures at a two-day media training on sexual and reproductive health and rights held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital recently, Director, Programme Operations, MSION, Mr Emmanuel Ajah, said the impact of their services were not only life-saving, but also a boost to the economy, stressing that the NGO saved the country £50m direct healthcare costs in 2018.
At the workshop organised by MSION in collaboration with the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, Ajah noted that the organisation provides capacity building for health workers on modern contraceptive methods in order to render quality services including comprehensive counselling to clients.
Giving further overview of the operations and impact of the NGO, he said: “We have trained over 6,000 government family planning providers and over 400 private sector providers in 34 states of the country to boost services. We provide support to government in the development of the new guidelines on post abortion care and therapeutic abortion”.
The Director stated that the MSION’s mission was to provide sexual reproductive health services in the country to enable women space their children and ensure they have children by choice, not chance.
He said this was imperative as over 3,000 women die from unsafe abortion in Nigeria annually.
He explained: “MSION interventions are very important to Nigeria as it has 18.9 per cent unmet need of family planning. Again, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a population of over 200 million people.
“The interventions are crucial because unsafe abortion contributes over 30 percent of maternal deaths in the country and Nigeria has an unacceptably high maternal mortality ratio of 451 deaths per 100,000 live births.
“So we are providing these interventions to support government in achieving its FP2020 target and other national and international goals including the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Also speaking, MSION’s Head, Marketing and Strategic Communication, Mrs Ogechi Onuoha, said the use of long-acting reversible contraceptive methods such as intrauterine devices and implants help women, couples, and girls prevent pregnancy when they are not ready.
Urging the media to raise more awareness on family planning and its benefits, Onuoha, affirmed that increase in awareness would lead to increase in uptake of services among women and girls, which she said would contribute in reducing the nation’s high maternal deaths.
According to her, for Nigeria to achieve its 27 per cent target of modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 2020, a lot must be done to remove barriers affecting the use of family planning such as myths and misconception, religious and cultural barriers.
In his presentation which centred on activities of those opposed to birth control popularly known as anti-choice groups, a Media Consultant to IPAS and MSION, Mr Emmanuel Ugoji, urged the media to counter their arguments and sentiments with scientific evidence and facts about the benefits of family planning and safe abortion care.
“With proper dissemination of information around sexual and reproductive health and rights, women will be free to decide what to do with their bodies; there will be better population and fertility management; deaths from unsafe abortion will be reduced and there will be reduction in maternal mortality rate”, Ugoji said.
Charting the way forward, NRHJN urged its members to always work with facts and evidence so that women and girls are empowered with the right information to make informed choices about their lives.
Some members of the Network who spoke at the workshop, challenged their colleagues to use their various platforms to intensify awareness on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues and also ensure that barriers to access to family planning such as myths and misconception were removed.
The workshop was aimed at strengthening the quality of media report around sexual and reproductive health and rights in Nigeria by addressing information gaps in this area of health reporting.
