Family Planning : Couples Make Steady Strides

Report from the Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare tells the story of a population which wants to manage their reproductive health.

Ahead of the Family Planning Summit in London, UK, Cameroon Tribune (CT) makes an appraisal of a subject which before now was considered a taboo by most African families especially the male sex. Yesterday, July 4, 2017 at the Head Office of Cameroon National Planning Association for Family Welfare (CAMNAFAW) in the Mimboman Neighbourhood in Yaounde, CT reporters discovered that family planning is no longer a forbidden topic amongst most couples in Cameroon. Mostly women kept visiting the structure to know more about family planning and which method can best fit their body systems.
Statistics from the Mimboman CAMNAFAW centre reveals that from June 1 to July 3, 2017, some 220 women visited the centre either for their regular family planning counselling or to freshly start the process which will henceforth help them have children when they want. Unlike two years ago, when statistics indicated that 63 per cent of women who wanted to avoid pregnancy could not use a modern method of contraception and that each year approximately half a million Cameroonian women had an unintended pregnancy, a midwife at the CAMNAFAW centre, Mrs Zoa Mbida Catherine says the story is gradually changing especially as the centre is out to help couples plan their families.
Although a majority of those who visit the centre are women, the midwife noted that men at times accompany their wives. However, it is noted that most at times men who visit the centre do so just to get information on the different family planning methods and their cost. Mrs Zoa says such i...