Experts have urged media practitioners to intensify promotion of awareness on family planning and adolescent and youth sexual representative health to reduce the incidences of teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections, maternal and morbidity rate.
The experts who spoke in Osogbo at a one-day orientation meeting for media personnel on Family Planning/ Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health organised by The Challenge Initiative (TCI) in collaboration with Ministry of Health, Osun State noted that media is key to creation of awareness on the sensitive issue.
Welcoming participant, the State Programme Manager, Dr. Adebusola Oyeyemi stated that the objective of the meeting include enlightening media practitioners and state Information officers on Family Planning/Adolescent Youth Sexual Reproductive Health (FP/AYSRH) situation, brainstorm on integration of FP/AYSRH in media programme among others.
While urging participants to make the best use of the opportunity provided by the meeting, Oyeyemi stated that similar programmes have been organised in many states in the first stage while Osun happens to be one of the states that is benefiting in the second stage.
In her lecture, Mrs. Ololade Margret Abatan held that family planning and adolescent and youth sexual reproductive health should be the concern of everybody because of its gravity on human health and existence.
She noted that recent research on family planning has further equipped experts on more effective family planning methodology adding that women have no cause to doubt the effectiveness of various methods of family planning as it affects every individual.
While stating that abstinence remained the most effective family planning method, Abatan stressed the need for parental counseling for adolescents adding that introduction of family planning to them may be inevitable because of societal decay.
Her words: “Osun State has designed robust programmes aimed at providing quality and comprehensive family planning services to women of productive age in order to reduce the incidences of teenage pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections and maternal morbidity and mortality rate”.
