Family planning is without a doubt one of the most important strides in public health over the past 100 years. It has generally been defined as a woman’s ability to decide if and when to have children.
Modern contraception has reduced the number of unintended pregnancies, as well as maternal and newborn deaths. A woman empowered with the ability to make choices about contraception is very likely to have healthier, and well-nourished children.
With that said, Depo-Provera injections remained the most preferred birth-control method among women in Kenya last year, with 595,703 new users registered, the newly published Economic Survey 2022 shows. Depo-Provera is a contraceptive injection that contains the hormone progestin. The injection is given every three months.
However, the number of new users of birth-control shots in 2021 marks a drop from 616,529 the previous year.
Implants had the second-highest number of new clients at 576,000 while oral pills had the second-highest number of revisits at 475,000 during the period.
Permanent family planning methods, including sterilization and tubal ligation, recorded low uptake, with the number of women undergoing the procedures decreasing to 3,616 from 4,435 in the previous year. However, male vasectomy recorded 248 new clients.
Kenya has made great progress toward increased uptake of family planning. According to data released by the Performance Monitoring for Action Kenya, in 2020, Kenya attained a contraceptive prevalence of 61%, surpassing the target of 58%. This year 2021, the country is still at 61 percent.
Challenges faced by women to family planning.
However, women still face constant challenges and barriers to family planning. Some of them are:
- Lack of access to services.
- Opposition from community leaders and spouses – usually on cultural, religious, or personal grounds.
- Ignorance about family planning and its derived benefits.
- Stockouts on some of the contraception methods.
A few approaches that could help to further expand contraceptive use in Kenya by the GoK to curb the constant challenges and barriers to family planning are:
- Government investment in sexual and reproductive health services and commodities.
- Improve the quality of care of family planning service delivery and options.
- Strengthen implementation of family planning policies and programs.
- Educate masses on the benefits of family planning.
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