Economic Hardship made Osun Women Adopt Family Planning, Expert says

Ololade Abatan, family planning coordinator at the Osun Ministry of Health, said present economic situation in the country, have made more women are now embracing family planning facilities with little mobilisation from the ministry.

The family planning expert disclosed this at a three-day training on media advocacy for family planning in Osogbo.

The training was organised by Development Communication Network, a media-development capacity non-profit organisation, in support of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), also a non-profit organisation.

According to Ms Abatan, the current economic situation is now pushing the family planning message to women without much counselling.

“Considering the situation of the economy, more women are now flowing into the facilities to take up family planning methods with little effort from the ministry. We need little effort to push women to come for family planning now, unlike before, when we had to mobilise, encourage, educate, and counsel them before they came.

“They are now coming out of their shell to pick up family planning methods. The situation of the economy is already pushing the message of family planning to women in the state,” she said.

She, however, urged men to support their wives in taking up family planning methods, adding that this would not make wives promiscuous.

“The orientation that men have is that women become promiscuous after taking up family planning. Family planning is about effective management of the home, and we are appealing to our men to support their wives,” she said.

In his remarks, Mayowa Adeniran, media engagement trainer for development communication, said the objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of journalists on effective reportage of family planning in the state.

Mr Adeniran said the training was to equip journalists in the state to be champions and advocates of family planning.

Also, Olatunde Raimi, TCI research, monitoring, and evaluation technical support lead, said in his presentation that the state expressed interest in the organisation in November 2021.

Raimi said that since then, TCI has supported 40 facilities within 10 local government areas in the state on advocacy for family planning.

“It is a demand-driven process which led to the state qualifying for the grant to support the family planning programme.”