In Buikwe district, a number of women using modern family planning is declining due to the Myths and Misconceptions people in the district have towards family planning.
It should be noted that family planning users in Buikwe district was 2,489 and increased by 97% to 78, 241 additional users by May 2022. But surprisingly half of the family planning users are adolescents and youth between 15 – 24 years.
Having noticed the decreasing use of the modern family planning methods, Msnews Uganda with support from Akina Mama Wa Afrika (AMwA) took time to find out “Why Women in Buikwe are not adopting modern family planning methods: Adressing Myths and Misconceptions.” through different engagements with different focus groups collecting views on the topic.
Under the women focus group discussions in Kyamabaale village, under their focal person Fatia Nassuuna, women expressed that they no longer use modern family planning methods due to fact that they encountered challenges caused by the side effects associated.
They revealed spotting, long time menstrual periods, missing their periods like Shamirah Namutebi who until now skips 2-3 months without menstruating, some used to get pregnant when they were using the methods, conflicts that lead to Gender based violence in homes and above all, they don’t receive financial support from their husbands to treat family planning side effects especially when taken behind their husbands backs.
According to men under their focus group in Buikwe municipal council, being led by their focal person Godfrey Sserwadda , they noted family planning methods as the leading cause of conflicts in their marriages. They said that first of all women using family planning don’t have sexual feelings, so they don’t want to engage in sex with their husbands, the side effects associated with the modern family planning methods also scares them from allowing their wives to use the methods since they require a lot of money to treat them which they don’t have.
They therefore chose to use withdraw method.
Women therefore stopped using the methods and the due to this, they have fallen in traps of having a big number of children that they cannot support and some of the men leave the burden of taking care of these children to the women.
We then dug deep to find out from health workers why women take side effects associated with modern family planning as the main reason for not using them. One of the health workers from Buikwe Health Centre III Jennifer Nalweyiso noted that, they take time to talk to women about the use of modern family planning but the biggest challenge is that they listen to their husbands orders than the health workers so health workers don’t have any other alternatives.
Jennifer expressed that they respect patients rights so they can not force them make any life decisions but only to guide them in their life choices.
Another midwife from Sisters of Joseph Clinic in Kyambogo village Deborah Nansubuga, expressed concern over the way women don’t turn up for family planning classes for fear of their husbands therefore they get family planning without being educated on how to handle the side effects incase they get them especially through changing the methods. In this, they just choose to stop using modern methods after facing the side effects hence getting a big number of unplanned children.
Meanwhile, Joseph Bisaso, the social worker at Child to Youth Foundation in Mwajija village, an NGO which helps the needy children, expressed dissatisfaction over women who get the number of children that they can not support, and when the foundation helps them to support some of them through educating and providing other necessities of life, they still don’t use family planning and continue getting other children yet they cannot support them.
The Secretary for Darasa women group in Kyamabaale Hasifa Namutebi and the woman councillor Buikwe ward B Phionah Namigadde joined their voices and appealed to the Ministry of health to sensitize women about modern family planning methods before using them and highlight the importance of seeking for medical advice when they get side effects.
However, the OC Child and Family Protection Unit at Buikwe Police SGT Rosemary Asaba noted that most Domestic Violence cases they handle at police are caused by men neglecting their family responsibilities due to the increasing number of children in homes.
SGT Asaba noted that most women are not educated about modern family planning methods before using them and she is a survivor of the IUD method which affected her health. She said this scares away women from using the methods hence getting more unplanned children. “I talked to the health worker when I continuously felt dizzy and she said my blood levels couldn’t support the IUD method. But other women don’t seek medical attention. They just stop and get pregnant.” She stressed.
She therefore called upon the Ministry of health and all stakeholders to endeavor sensitizing the public about the methods and provide them with solutions to the side effects so that they can be more attracted to using them.
