The Delta state government Wednesday said about 200, 000 women of reproductive age accessed family planning yearly to avoid maternal motality and unwanted pregnancy in the state.
The Reproductive Health Program Manager, Ministry of Health, Dr. Weyinmi Francis, stated this at the meeting of stakeholders in the reproductive health space to promote family planning.
Dr. Francis said the state has almost 1.3 million women of reproductive age that need to access family planning, adding that initially the state had average of 13,000 to 15,000 new acceptors and those who have never taken FP before.
She said without quoting data, “we have about 250, 000 new women of reproductive age that access FP yearly. Because of the new demands generation and sensitization, we want to increase it to 500,000 to 600, 000 of new women yearly.”
She noted that family planning has proven to have the capacity of reducing maternal mortality by 30%. It is an intervention that is very strong when it comes to maternal mortality.
“We are trying to develop adolescent health services and intervention and that is why we are here.
“We are not projecting family planning for adolescent youth, we project sex education. We know that there is peer pressure in the state. So, we try to empower them with information and knowledge. When they are faced with peer pressure, they have the information to say no to illegal abortion, premarital sex, unprotected sex and any kind of activities that can bring adolescent down health wise.”