Family planning needs support

TODAY is World Contraception Day. But with cultural barriers, it could pass without much notice.
Contraception, also known as birth control or fertility control, is a method or device used to prevent pregnancy.
Marked every Sept 26, the day’s mission is to improve awareness of all contraceptive methods available and enable young people to make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health.
Realistically in PNG, cultural barriers are preventing young people from accessing contraception and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) thus increasing unplanned pregnancies and robbing young people of their life chances.
In PNG, compared to most developing nations, women have children at too early an age. Women often choose this path because they simply have no other choice.
Again, everything falls back to education, not just any education, but quality education in both urban and rural schools.
Quality education includes outcomes that encompass knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are linked to national goals for education and positive participation in society.
Unless the young population are educated to a standard to understand the advantages and disadvantages of having children very early in life, the population of PNG will continue to increase at an alarming rate.
In that regard, several different lines of action should be taken to empower women for maximum effectiveness. This means, awareness programmes need to be ramped up, and women in remote areas with little knowledge of birth control need to be reached.
Blocking access to contraception and comprehensive sex education increases the chance that young women will experience an unplanned pregnancy, often derailing their hopes and dreams for the future. The impact of this is devastating.
There is an international consensus that individuals and couples have a right to control their reproductive decisions, including family size and the timing of births. But surveys in many developing countries reveal substantial deficiencies in access to family planning.
Up to a quarter of women want to either stop childbearing altogether or delay the arrival of their next child, but many lack access to contraception.
Some who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe and effective family planning methods, for reasons ranging from lack of access to information or services to lack of support from their partners or communities.
Women have used birth control methods for thousands years, both traditional and modern, to reduce the risk of pregnancy and encourage birth spacing.
Today we have safer and effective birth control methods available to women, and men.
It should be no shame to talk about family planning which is essential to securing the well-being and autonomy of women, while supporting the health and development of communities.
Today is perfect timing to raise awareness as our country’s population is growing at an alarming rate which some say is already putting a strain on the Government in terms of providing basic services.
In fact, they say women and men who understand family planning methods are in a better position to prevent unplanned pregnancies and focus more on their goals and aspirations.
The blame for this problem lies largely on our woeful state of family planning, with people reluctant to take adequate measures for fear of social stigma, religious taboos, and misinformation that circulates about contraception.
Statistics show only 25 per cent of our population have some form of knowledge and only 8 per cent of our population are using reliable contraception.
Government policies should support the availability and use of family planning services.