Central Region has 30 per cent unmet needs of family planning services - GHS

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is calling on all, especially women and sexually active adolescents, to make family planning a choice to stem unwanted pregnancies and to be in control of their lives.

It said planning one's family would also help reduce the menace of teen pregnancies, induced abortions and improve maternal health and child survival.

The call came at the backdrop that about 30 per cent of the Region's population had unmet family planning needs.

“This is so because these people have entangled themselves in the misconceptions and myths around family planning services,” Mrs Beatrice Asirifi, the Central Regional Public Health Nurse, explained.

She was speaking during a stakeholder consultative meeting designed by the GHS and sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).

It was to engage stakeholders on ways availability of family planning services and how teenage pregnancy could be curbed to positively affect the growing population.

Mrs Asirifi indicated that the general family planning acceptance had increased significantly this year.

It dropped drastically last year due to the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

She said a total of 12,1331 persons chose different methods under family planning from January to June in 2019 while 2020 recorded 10,4733 persons undergoing the same services.

From January to June this year, she said 14,4851 persons accessed family planning services, adding that the Service was hoping to reach about 45 per cent of the Region’s population by the end of the year.

She commended Twifo Atti-Morkwa, Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira (THLD), Ekumfi and Effutu districts for making remarkable family planning choices to better plan their family sizes.

Mr Michael Tagoe, an Adolescent Sexual health activist at the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), noted that all contraception methods were efficient, safe and highly reversible.

He urged nurses not to compromise on giving detailed counselling before, during and after family planning to patients to help erase some misconceptions about the service.

Mr Tagoe said his outfit would continue to sensitize the public through media campaigns to get a larger section of the populace to understand the essence of planning their families.

Mr Emmanuel Narh Haugo, the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Coordinator for Basic Schools, expressed Ghana Education Service's unflinching support to help win the fight against the rising cases of teen pregnancies in the Region.