A resolve to beef up family planning education in communities
By Augustine Octavius
As the adolescent birth rate increases in Liberia, a two-day national family planning conference has ended, with the adoption of a 25-count resolution aimed at enhancing the fight against the teenage pregnancy in the country.
The conferees also resolved to promote sexual education between parents and their children at the very early age.
The conference reached the resolution that the Ministry of Health to include family planning division to recognize the efforts of local organizations working in the communities.
Some platform guest at the just-ended family planning forum
A demographic health survey conducted by the United Nations Population Fund has revealed that Liberia’s adolescent birth rate is about 149 births in every thousand adolescents. One of the ten principles in the UN Declaration of the Rights of the child says a child has: “the right to special protection for the child’s physical, mental and social development.”
UNFPA Resident Representative, Dr. Oluremi Sogunro, disclosed that 60 percent of fistula cases are from teenage mothers.
According to the UNFPA, there are 1072 maternal mortality per 100,000 life birth in Liberia.
This means, Dr. Sogunro went on, at least 2,144 pregnant women and girls will die each year from preventable pregnancy related problems.
The survey also revealed that 6,000 babies are dying every year in Liberia because of the death of their mothers in labor.
Concluding , he pointed that a global partnership has been established with family planning in order to give the rights to women to select when to have a child.
During the deliberation, the conferees discussed the importance of family planning in reducing maternal mortality and improving adolescent health, family planning information, education and services in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in adolescents, the role of the religious and traditional leaders in prevention of unplanned pregnancies among women and girls.
