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WORLD CONTRACEPTIVE DAY: ‘Child spacing can improve women’s health’

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WORLD CONTRACEPTIVE DAY: 'Child spacing can improve women’s health'

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has expressed the importance of child spacing in improving women’s health and the need for advocacy to uphold the rights of women to choose when and how they want to start a family.

The call is coming as the globe marks World Contraceptive Day, and according to Sagal Ali, Global Communications Manager of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), it is crucial for mothers to space childbirth and pregnancies for 1000 days, for their health, wellbeing and socio-economic stability.

The group also noted that for this to successfully happen, women need to have access to safe, modern, effective and affordable contraceptives.

Continuing, Sagal noted that Childbirth and pregnancy spacing is vital for the health and wellbeing of mothers and their families.

In Sagal’s opinion, a lack of properly spaced pregnancies can lead to various health issues, such as increased risk of your next child being a preterm, having low birth weight or being of small gestational size.

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“Un-spaced pregnancies also affect the mother’s ability to fully recover as pregnancies deplete essential nutrients. Financial instability can also occur as many are not prepared for the cost of raising and feeding a growing family, which often leads to debt and poverty, stress and divorce.

“In Nigeria, a country of 188.9 million people, of which over 42 million are women of reproductive age, the contraceptive use (any method) is still abysmally low at 15.1 %. Worse, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate is 9.8 %. This is not unconnected to the fact that births to adolescent girls (aged 15-19 years) are as high as 14.9 %.” Sagal added.

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