The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris has called on the male folks to encourage their wives and partners to embrace family planning, saying it’s not only women but the entire family and the society at large that would benefit from its advantage.
During the 60th National Conference onHealth, NCH, Project Director, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), Dr Mojisola Odeku, speaks about the essence of The Challenge Initiative, TCI. Excerpts.
The Challenge Initiative, TCI, is doing business in an unusual way. It’s really nothing new but a practical way of ensuring that the owners of the land take it back for themselves with us just providing the light technical assistance.
The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI 2) said it has reached an additional 245,318 Lagosians with the message of Child Birth Spacing(CBS) in 10 local government areas between November 2016 and October 2017.
Speaking at an event organized for about 200 Community Mobilizers in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government yesterday, Senior Programme Officer for NURHI 2, Mr. Adewale Haastrup said from the records derived from the ommunity Mobilizers, more Lagosians are receptive to CBS programmes.
Concerned by the spate of unsafe sex by adolescents in the country, an NGO, the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, says there is a need for increased information about unsafe sex to reduce the consequences.
According to the NGO, current studies indicate that about one-quarter of Nigerian adolescents are sexually active, with the age of sexual debut ranging from 10 to 15 years.
Worried by stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables, experts at the Performance Monitoring and Accountability (PMA) 2020, a recent family planning (FP) review, advocated increased funding for FP by state governments.
In view of high incidence of unplanned pregnancies, Funmi Olaolorun, the Co-Principal Investigator, PMA 2020, stressed that increased funding by state governments would tackle stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables in many states.
The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), has called for the inclusion of sexuality education in school curriculum to help curb unwanted pregnancy amongst teenage girls.
Making this known in Lagos, NURHI representatives, Modupe Oluwatayo and Tella Oladipopu, said part of the factors responsible for unplanned pregnancy, especially teenage pregnancy, is early start of sexual activity, streamlined to lack of sexuality education in school curriculum and sexual violence which could be rape or coercive sex.
Lagosians have developed a keen aptitude for family planning. Hardly does one come across a couple in the State today that is not utilising one form of contraception or the other.
Findings show that the development is as a result of intensified efforts by the state government and its partner, the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, NURHI.
With a goal to reduce the level of teenage pregnancy and abortion in the country, the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), has called for access to contraception as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Contraception Day (WCD).
The arrival of new born babies, are often greeted with fanfare but where the unexpected happens, the mood in such homes are better imagined than felt.
Research says one out of the 13 pregnant women out there dies while giving birth to new born. More worrisome is another that says four women die at child birth per hour, making it more pathetic that 96 of our pregnant women die daily during delivery in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s population continues to increase rapidly with no commensurate development in health care service delivery. With a current estimated population of 186 million and an annual growth rate of about 2.5%, Nigeria’s huge population, fuelled by high birth rate without good family planning, can be a huge burden with resultant poor health indices such as high maternal and infant deaths. Nigeria’s maternal and child deaths is one of the highest in the world.
