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Uganda: Cancer Myths Fail Family Planning
– Reported, May 24, 2013
This is according to a household survey on perceptions about IUCDs among women of reproductive age in Uganda done in 2012 in 53 districts. The survey was conducted by a local non-governmental organisation the Programme for Accessible Health Communication and Education (PACE).
The study indicated that the majority of the women (88%) believe that IUCD’s are effective but a lower number perceive them to be safe. The report was disseminated at a PACE reproductive health conference at the Serena Hotel in Kampala, by Dr. Dorothy Balaba. The revelations comes on the backdrop that only about 30% of reproductive age women use contraceptives with only 26% using modern methods, despite the fact that family planning has been available in Uganda for some 60 years.
The study pointed out that there is need to increase access and use of affordable family planning methods especially the high-quality long-term and reversible contraceptives with focus on the IUCDs. According to the study, only 0.5% of the women are using the IUCDs. The rural women whose fertility rate is higher than their urban counterparts are more in need of long term contraception because of the difficulty to access services easily.
The study said that some of the hindrances to accessing and usage of IUCDs are the socially constructed myths and wrong perceptions. It pointed out that there is need to dispel these myths and misconceptions in order to promote accessibility.
According to the PACE study, the unmet need for contraception stands at 39.7% not because the women are not aware of the methods. It pointed out that knowledge and awareness of IUCDs is high but is much lower than that of pills and injectable.
It out the spontaneous awareness of IUCD at 59.8% compared to that for pills and injectable which stood at 91% and 89% respectively.
As far as social norms, social support and social efficacy of IUCDs, the study revealed that about a third of the women believed that many women in their communities were using them.
However, it also revealed that about 74% said that their partners favoured using contraceptives and a small number of women (17%) feel embarrassed asking providers about family planning. It said that 58% of the reproductive age women said they would recommend IUCDs to a friend and 48% said that their partners decided on their use of contraceptives.
Dr. Margaret Mungherera the President of the Uganda Medial Association said that there is need to establish a forum to close the information gap between service providers, policy makers and the researchers in order to chart out clear strategies. She said that adequate access to family planning can save 30% of the women dying from pregnancy related causes.
CREDITS.
http://allafrica.com/
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