Family planning education to be intensified in Central Region

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Gomoa East, Mr Isaac Kingsely Ahunu-Armah, has called on health workers in the Central Region to intensify their public education on family planning.

He said the reported cases of teenage pregnancy and the incidence of unsafe abortion were increasing in the society.

The DCE made the call when he re-launched the family planning services in the district at Gomoa Afranse.

The re-launch, which was to increase awareness in the family planning services and its acceptance rate in the district, was initiated by the Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the United state Agency for International Development (USAID), Focus Region Health Project (FRHP) and Marries Steopes International.

Mr Ahunu-Armah said teenage pregnancies contributed about 589 of pregnancies in the district in 2011, 681 in 2012 and 160 in the first four months in 2013.

He said the lack of planning ones family might bring social exclusion, risky reproductive health, risk of poverty and risk of maternal and infant mortality and mobility.

Mr Wilberforce Adadeh, Gomoa East District Director of Health Services, cautioned religious bodies against preventing their members from practicing family planning services.

He said the youth of today were sexually active, and it would create problems if their religious bodies prevent them from practicing it.

The district director of health said apart from preventing unwanted pregnancies, which leads to unsafe abortion, family planning protected the people from contracting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

Mrs Crystal Clottey, Deputy Director of Nursing Services, said the re-launching of family planning services in the district was due to the prevailing low acceptance rate.

She said some used their poverty situation as an excuse to stay away from family planning services.

Mrs Veronica Amoako, District Public Health Nurse, said teenage pregnancy was high in the district because they did not want to practices family planning and advised them to practice family planning to ensure a better future.

She said free family planning services would be rendered by the Marries Steopes International in the district in May 2013.

Mr Benjamin Dadson, District Disease Control Officer, appealed to the people to accept family planning services to help them come out of poverty.