Ministry of Health data has indicated that only four in every 10 sexually-active young women use contraceptives that can protect them from falling pregnant.
The ministry made the revelation on Saturday during the Family Planning Association of Malawi (Fpam) Annual Delegates Conference in Lilongwe.
Speaking during the conference, the ministry’s director of reproductive health services Doreen Ali said key factors behind the trend include limited comprehensive sexuality education as well as myths and misconceptions associated with contraceptive use among youths.
She, however, said all is not lost as the country was doing well on contraceptive prevalence rate among married women as at least seven women out of 10 or about 70 percent use pregnancy preventive methods.
Said Ali: “We need to strategise and see how we can reach these women, especially the adolescents. We need to them with information on contraceptives. We need to allay their anxiety and fears about it.”
She has since expressed optimism that the country will achieve the 60 percent target for contraceptives uptake among women by 2030 as more stakeholders are now working in the area of reproductive health to reach young women with messages.
In his remarks, Fpam executive director Donald Makwakwa said they are committed to promoting family planning to ensure that the uptake of contraceptives meets the 60 percent target by 2030.
He said: “We are making a lot of progress, because six years ago modern contraceptives uptake rate was quite low but uptake at 70 percent for married women was considerably high.”
So far, Ministry of Health data shows that contraceptive prevalence rate among adolescents remains low at 37.5 per cent.
This leads to one of the highest adolescent birth rates in Africa of 136 births per 1 000 girls.
Ministry of
Health data has indicated that only four in every 10 sexually-active young
women use contraceptives that can protect them from falling pregnant.The
ministry made the revelation on Saturday during the Family Planning Association
of Malawi (Fpam) Annual Delegates Conference in Lilongwe.Speaking
during the conference, the ministry’s director of reproductive health services
Doreen Ali said key factors behind the trend include limited comprehensive
sexuality education as well as myths and misconceptions associated with
contraceptive use among youths.She,
however, said all is not lost as the country was doing well on contraceptive
prevalence rate among married women as at least seven women out of 10 or about
70 percent use pregnancy preventive methods.Said Ali:
“We need to strategise and see how we can reach these women, especially the
adolescents. We need to them with information on contraceptives. We need to
allay their anxiety and fears about it.”She has
since expressed optimism that the country will achieve the 60 percent target
for contraceptives uptake among women by 2030 as more stakeholders are now
working in the area of reproductive health to reach young women with messages.In his
remarks, Fpam executive director Donald Makwakwa said they are committed to
promoting family planning to ensure that the uptake of contraceptives meets the
60 percent target by 2030.He said:
“We are making a lot of progress, because six years ago modern contraceptives
uptake rate was quite low but uptake at 70 percent for married women was
considerably high.”So far,
Ministry of Health data shows that contraceptive prevalence rate among
adolescents remains low at 37.5 per cent.This leads
to one of the highest adolescent birth rates in Africa of 136 births per 1 000
girls.
