Family planning is a medical procedure that prevent women from getting pregnant thereby allowing deliberate and intentional spacing of child birth among couples and/or two adult of opposing gender without stopping child birth permanently. This was disclosed by Mrs. Ololade Abatan from Family Planning Unit of the Osun state Ministry of Health, Osogbo while appearing on “Alafia Tayo”, a weekly health program of the osun state broadcasting corporation (OSBC).
Mrs. Ololade reiterated the importance of family planning as it allows men and women to independently plan for when they are ready to give birth according to the number of children they can cater for and also allow parents to give adequate spacing between two pregnancies. She corrected the misconception that family planning concerns only women and insist that men can also use some type of family planning and also give necessary support for their wives or partners.
She further stressed that family planning help mothers in birthing healthy children while declaring that research has shown that family planning reduces the risk of women mortality rate by at least 30%.
However, family planning requires specific procedure according to the preference of the couples or partners and suitability of their respective body
To ensure maximum enjoyment in marriage between two couples, family planning is important.
While speaking further on the importance of family planning, Mrs Ololade said apart from helping partners determines the number of children they intend to have, it also helps them avoid having unwanted pregnancies which according to her is capable of causing depression on the part of women and animosity between two partners.
According to Mrs Ololade, there are varieties of family planning methods available depending on the choice of each partners ; condoms for both male and female (which also prevents sexually transmitted diseases), tablets which is of two colors, white color for lactating mothers and blue color for non lactating mothers or women which are to be taken everyday. There is also an option of injection which can be taken either at two or three months interval.
She concluded the program by appealing to men and husbands to show compassion to their wives or partners and support in making a suitable family planning methods as this will ensure a healthy living for their partners and also appeal to the general public to sensitize their family and friends on the importance of family planning.
