Kumasi, June 16, GNA - Dr. Gloria Quansah-Asare, Director, Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, has said family planning is key to the attainment of the nation's eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). She said this called for an urgent response and commitment by stakeholders to develop and implement sector action plans to move the national agenda forward. Dr. Quansah-Asare was speaking at a durbar on family planning at Kotei near Kumasi under the theme "Repositioning Family Planning in Kumasi". It was organized by the Kumasi Metropolitan Health Directorate and attended by queen mothers, faith organizations, women groups, Representatives from the Ministries Departments and Agencies, health workers, nursing mothers and students.

She said the concept of contraception or family planning was not a foreign idea and should not be regarded as foreign imposition. She said in Ghana research had shown that there was almost universal awareness and knowledge of contraception but there was a low patronage of contraceptives.

Dr. Quansah-Asare urged men to show interest and commitment to family planning by supporting their partners and also seeking for male methods and other reproductive health services. She called for the inclusion of some methods of family planning in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and also the need for support for family planning.

Dr. Kwasi Yeboah-Awudzi, the Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Health Service, said inadequate awareness and misconception about family planning had been found to be some of the major reasons for low patronage of family planning services.

He said last year 222 women died from pregnancy-related conditions with ages ranging from 14 to 35 years as against 179 in 2007 and 175 in 2006. Dr. Yeboah Awudzi attributed the causes of these deaths to bleeding after delivery and abortions.

He said deaths of children under five years was also on the increase from 2,177 in 2006 and 2,602 in 2007 and 2,280 in 2008. He said if women who do not want to be pregnant or want to delay motherhood by spacing their births could have access to family planning maternal deaths could be reduced by a third. 16 June 09