*hails el-Rufai for dedicated N100m CBS budget, appeals for prompt release of funds
Because men pose the biggest challenge to the growth of Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) they should be target more with messages stressing the importance of Child Birth Spacing (CBS), in view of the benefits that come with it, an official of the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Agency, Dr. Amos Tela has suggested.
He made the suggestion recently in Kaduna, during Development Communication Network (DevComs), Stakeholders Roundtable Discussion.
According to him, women embrace the message of child birth spacing, but men are most times, the stumbling blocks resulting to their unmet needs.
“Men should be the targets with the message of child birth spacing. Men are the biggest problem. If a man says he wants to have 10 children, the women would be left with no option but to oblige,” he added.
Speaking further, Tela said that child spacing has a positive multiplying effect that touches on families, communities and the country.
In terms of benefits to families, he stressed that it would allow them to have just the number of children they can take care of, which leaves them with enough resources to lead comfortable lives.
For the community and country, he explained that it would afford government to plan better with available resources to cater for a planned population.
He decried the current statistics, that puts Northern Nigeria at a disadvantaged position of having the highest rate of maternal mortality worldwide, a situation he said all key stakeholders must collaborate to reverse.
“Each year, 99 per cent of maternal mortality occurs in developing countries. In developing countries, 66 per cent of such deaths, occur in sub-Saharan Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria has the highest rate, while Northern Nigeria has the highest occurrence within the country,” he stated.
He praised the Kaduna State Government for taking the lead in Nigeria, by creating a record budget line of N100million dedicated to child birth spacing.
The health expert however, appealed for prompt release of the funds to enable its impact in the key area of child birth spacing.
