The importance of family planning

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Abdourraouf Yougouda is a Level 4 medical student at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bamenda,Cameroon. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Everyone deserves the right to determine, as best as they wish, the course of their personal lives and this includes the number of children they will choose to have, but as many other choices of free will, they come with consequences like increased expenditure and domestic trauma amongst others reasons why family planning is a necessity in our African society. But for this to be implemented holistically, it needs a lot of stakeholders which are mostly family planning providers found on the field.

Family planning providers have the privilege and responsibility to help people to make and carry out these decisions in order to curb a lot of setbacks that come with having several kids and as well as  maternal danger during pregnancy and this transcends a lot of barriers.

Thus, high-quality family planning services and the people who deliver them will have to respect and protect the human rights of all their patients given that it is a matter of persuasion in order for the patient to make a final choice. As such everyone working at every level of the health system plays an important role.

As defined by the WHO, family planning providers can contribute to the success of implementation of adequate family planning methods by being: Knowledgeable about the family planning methods available and how to provide them, listening to and understanding the desires and needs of each of the partners, explaining them all about family planning methods clearly, their usability, effectiveness, and possible side effects, if any and finally helping the couple to consider what is important to them in a family planning.

This is only possible through comprehensive and interactive sexual education. Young people will stand a chance to gain a better understanding of the different aspects of sexuality including cognitive, emotional, physical and social part of it all. Likewise, it will also enable them to deepen their knowledge and develop attitudes and skills that are useful for their health, dignity and well-being as a whole.

To end with, the knowledge gained about sex will not be limited to adolescence but instead will considerably contribute to the success or failure in marital lives amongst young couples when it comes to choosing suitable family planning methods.

About the author

Abdourraouf Yougouda is a Level 4 medical student at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bamenda, Director of the Standing Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Health under the Cameroon Medical Student’s Associations, National Officer for the IFMSA SCORA and currently a member of incision  in Cameroon. For the past  four years, he helped to develop and implement more than five projects in six regions of Cameroon which helped to educate and empower a number of  communities on sexual and reproductive health issues.