30,000 FCT women use family planning for the first time

General Hospitals in the FCT took in at least 29,670 new women seeking to use family planning services for the first time ever in slum neighbourhoods around the capital city, says a rights group.

The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) which pushes family planning services for women in urban slums, said at the end of its project, which rounds off in August, it found that the intention to use family planning among women rose from 18% to more than 23% during its work in urban slums.

“These are people who want to use family planning services but don’t know how to access it, or where to go,” said Adebukola Salako, technical officer for NURHI in the FCT.

At least 39% of all new cases were in Bwari General Hospital, the highest after 38% recorded in Kubwa and 23% in Mpape, according to data from NURHI report.

The hospitals also recorded some 98,200 revisits, mainly women who had gone beyond first-time use of family planning services.

Among them, implants were the most commonly used option to prevent pregnancy, accounting for nearly 36% of all available options on offer, compared with 26% for intrauterine devices.

Salako said the overarching concern was to make sure that the “woman in the community is reached by information, counseled properly and is able to assess the services she needs for her reproductive health.”

Ayobami Akiode, monitoring and evaluation officer for NURHI, said improved quality of care was pushing up the number of women wanting to get better plan for their families.