The British government has raised concern about the number of women who die from complications of pregnancy of childbirth, particularly unwanted pregnancies that could have been prevented.
Permanent secretary of the UK’s Department for International Development, Mark Lowcock, said on Thursday, “It is a big challenge still in Nigeria. More than 100 women a day lose their life giving life. That can be reduced.”
Speaking during a tour of family planning clinic at 105-capacity Maitama District Hospital in Abuja, Lowcock signalled UK’s commitment to continued support for family planning commodities and training of health workers to provide services.
“The British government wants to provide the best possible services for people of Nigeria,” said Lowcock.
DFID, through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is considered the biggest funder of family planning commodities and services available through public health facilities.
A total 236 centres provide family planning in the FCT, up from 60 in 2011, according to Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, executive secretary of the FCT Primary Health Care Agency.
Maitama District Hospital’s three-room complex family planning clinic alone has seen an average 266 clients every month this year, suggesting increased uptake, said its medical director Adetoun Sotimehin.
In its 12-year existence, its annual client attendance has risen from 645 in 2004 to 2135 in the first eight months of 2016.
Only seven out of every 100 clients last year were men.
Statistics from the clinic show barrier methods are more popular, with contraceptive prevalence rate hovering around 61%.
The clinic gave out nearly 19,000 male condoms and 403 female condoms, according to its 2016 data.
UNFPA executive director Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, who’s been on a three-day visit with Lowcock to shore up support from Nigerian government, said the figures showed growing male acceptance of condoms.
“But we can do a lot better with the long acting contraceptive,” he said, citing their higher effectiveness.
He pledged UNFPA would help build capacity of health workers to deliver non-barrier family planning services.
Only 266 clients opted for oral contraceptive, 261 for injectables, 261 for intrauterine devices and 172 for implants.
