Ogun embraces guidelines on self-injection for family planning

By Adekunle YusufTo reduce preventable deaths among women of child bearing age as well as improve health indices, Ogun State Government has embraced the Federal Governments guidelines for the introduction and scale-up of DepoMedroxy Progesterone SubCutaneous (DMPA-SC), a self-injection method of family planning.Handing over the document and advocacy brief to the Ogun Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, during an advocacy meeting with delegates from the Federal Ministry of Health and Pathfinder International, Nigeria, the Director, Reproductive Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Afolabi, said the materials would guide the state towards successful implementation of the intervention and recommendations, being the first among the 13 states selected in the country.Afolabi explained that the self-care intervention was the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote and maintain health, prevent diseases, cope with illness and disability with or without the support of service providers. It was a reliable game changer for family planning because DMPA-SC self-injection will boost the Nigerias modern Contraceptive Prevelence Rate (mCPR) from 18.3 per cent to 19.5 per cent with additional 660,000 family planning users in 2021, he affirmed.Afolabi noted that the guidelines would improve ante-natal delivery, enhance post abortion care and combat sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)w, emphasising the need to improve on mCPR of the country.Coker said the administration in the state is committed to reduce maternal and infant mortality rate to the barest minimum. The commissioner pointed out that the state government has made huge investment in the provision and access to quality sexual and reproductive health for residents, adding that it has standardised primary health care service delivery through renovation, equipping, staffing and digitisation of facilities.According to her, the document would enhance health coverage in the state and the country at large, encourage task shifting and sharing policy, as well as make people take responsibility for their own care, assuring of a cordial working relationship with the federal government and other relevant stakeholders to advance the sexual and reproductive health of residents.
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