Break away from misconceptions on family planning — Ridge Medical Director

The Medical Director of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH), Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyo, has advised parents to break away from misconceptions and adopt family planning methods to help space out child birth and improve the general well being of their families.

He said family planning methods were safe and when adopted by a couple could help ensure peace and prosperity within the family and a healthy partnership between parents.

Dr. Srofenyo, who was speaking at the launch of the 2020 Family Planning Week celebration at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH) at Ridge in Accra last Monday, said the hospital would adopt an open door policy throughout the week as part of the celebration to encourage couples to visit the newly resourced Family Planning Centre at the facility for further enquiries and services.

This year's Family Planning Week, which is being celebrated on the theme: "Ready For Conception, Ready For My Future" is focusing on breaking the misconceptions associated with family planning methods.

Dr. Srofenyo said there were many misconceptions that had long been associated with family planning methods that needed to be discarded due to new knowledge of such methods.

"Our centre has friendly staff who will welcome you and we will have an open door at the Family Planning Centre during the week to provide service on family planning to the public so please take advantage of it and seek the service", he said.

Some participants at the event

Breaking myths

A Medical Officer at the GARH, Dr. Emmanuel Ameh, who debunked some of the misconceptions associated with family planning said it was not true that family planning methods were unsafe and could for a example cause cancer.

He said despite the myths associated with such birth control methods, research had proven that they were safe and beneficial for the happiness of a family.

"No Family planning methods has shown to cause any form of cancers at all. Rather it is the use of the hormonal one which have been shown to offer protective effect against certain type of cancers, such as endometrial cancers and colourectal cancers", he said.

He said for instance that a woman was nine times less likely to encounter ectopic pregnancy, if she was using a family planning method.

Dr. Ameh said although not all family planning methods were 100 per cent effective in preventing a pregnancy, no research had shown that such methods could make a woman infertile.

"Once a method is stopped, the return to fertile is immediate and there are no delay for most users", he said.

Dr. Ameh added that family planning methods did not disrupt an existing pregnancy and must, therefore, not be used to try to abort pregnancy.

He said it could, therefore, be used effectively at any time, including days of menstruation.

"No emergency contraceptive work by causing abortion but they basically prevent ovulation and fertilisation, thereby preventing pregnancy ", he said.

Unwanted pregnancy

To help curb the rise in unplanned pregnancies among teenagers, Dr. Ameh said family planning methods had been known to reduce abortion as it allowed sexually active teenagers to go on with their education without interruptions of unwanted pregnancy.

He said it was, therefore, important for parents to encourage the use of such methods in their teenage children who had shown signs of being sexually active to help prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Dr. Ameh added that men, who use vasectomy, for instance, did not lose their libido but rather its use could build their confidence to perform better in bed.

He explained that such confidence would build up because men would feel free during sex without thinking of the burden of encountering an unplanned pregnancy.

A Medical Officer at the GARH, Dr. Martin Boamah, who spoke on the benefits of Family Planning and Novel Contraceptives, also encouraged partners to adopt family planning methods to help improve their lives.

Dr. Boamah said spacing out child birth was one of the best way to ensure that children grew up healthy and strong.

He said there were improved methods that were presently available that were safe and affordable, and, therefore, encouraged the public to patronise them.