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| UNFPA revamps family planning campaign to cut maternal deaths
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By Kennedy Abwao,
PANA Correspondent
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) -
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is set to revamp i
ts family planning campaign to reduce the number
of deaths associated with child-birth among African women, a senior UNFPA expert
said here Monday.
Research shows lack of proper family planning and low use of contraceptives are
responsible for 40 percent of the deaths of pregnant
mothers. Abortions contribute a certain percentage of the deaths while HIV/AIDS
related complications are responsible for 21-55 percent.
UNFPA's Senior Programme Adviser on Reproductive and Maternal Health, Dr Eric Ak
inyele, said the UN and the African Union had slated a
major campaign to re-position family planning among the main public health polic
y interventions to reduce the number of women dying during
child-birth, mostly known as maternal deaths.
Dr Akinyele says family planning has been viewed as an 'external' tool to reduce
the African population without adequate emphasis being put
on the main benefits that the African population would get from having properly
planned families.
"There was an initial loss of momentum on family planning since 2003 but there a
re some efforts to re-position it within Africa. The most
recent one was at a conference on family planning in Uganda on 19-21 November,"
Dr Akinyele said in a phone interview with PANA from
his base in Johannesburg.
The African Union Commission (AUC) has launched a plan to accelerate a campaign
to reduce maternal mortality, of which the UNFPA is a leading
advocate.
UNFPA experts say since the launch of the AU Campaign on Accelerated Reduction o
f Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), in May 2009, some 10
countries in Africa have joined the campaign, aimed at drastically reducing the
number of women dying while giving birth.
Some of the countries that have joined the first phase of CARMMA include Chad, E
thiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria,
Swaziland and Rwanda.
"Africans used to have several children because they did not know which child wo
uld live until they (parents) grow old. They feared
having fewer children because of the high rates of under-five mortality. Now, we
need to tell them to have quality babies," Dr. Akinyele said.
The UN expert said family planning offers mothers an opportunity to have babies
when their bodies were healthier, thus increasing the rate of child survival.
"The Africans are beginning to see the effects of quality children. It is no lon
ger about having more children, but having quality children
that the parents can send to good schools. The parents are beginning to see the
advantages," he said.
The UNFPA is taking the lead in implementing the safe motherhood programme, and
the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a host of other UN
agencies are expected to join in accelerating the delivery of the plan in 2010.
"The momentum is increasing. We are determined not to leave any country behind i
n 2010. We will be launching this programme in 10
countries in Africa every year until the 53 AU member states are covered," said
Dr Akinyele.
Africa's public health planners have faced severe criticism over the manner in w
hich the family planning, mostly focusing on
contraceptives use, was administered.
"The initial conception was that family planning was to reduce the populations.
But with family planning, the chances are that the baby
would be healthier before the next one is born, again because some beliefs in Af
rica is that a mother cannot breastfeed if they are
pregnant with the next baby," Dr Akinyele explained.
Dr Akinyele also said some pregnant mothers were forced to avoid eating some foo
ds due to cultural beliefs, although those foods are critical to the mother's he
a
lth
and their unborn child.
"Culture is a big barrier. These are the major impediments to maternal health. T
hey are causing a lot of deaths in the region. It is a taboo for a man's wife to
die, there
are also the deaths caused by early marriages, where conception takes place with
the first menstruation when the mother's pelvis is still too small for the baby
to
pass," the health expert warned.
However, Dr Akinyele said there had been "pockets of success" among the African
countries that have joined CARMMA, with some of those
countries reducing the number of women dying during childbirth due to community
interventions.
In countries where the successful results were returned, he said, the insistence
of the local populations on having all mothers to deliver safely, through a pla
n
tagged
community maternal audit, have helped authorities to reduce the number of deaths
.
Most of these community interventions have been recorded in Malawi, Rwanda and U
ganda, where the villagers undertake the health reviews and confront authorities
.
Nigeria has also managed to cut the number of women deaths from 1,100 for every
100,000 live births in 2005 to 545/100,000 in 2009.
But this still means that 59,000 Nigerian women die every year while giving birt
h.
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| Addis Ababa - 29/12/2009 |
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