BY NYASHA DUBE- Adolescent girls and women, especially those from low and middle income countries are often faced with a number of challenges when it comes to access and choice of family planning. Most often engage in sexual activities at a tender age, marital or premarital, because of reasons such as early marriage, peer pressure, the need to experiment what they learn from popular culture mediums, among others. However their rate of seeking knowledge on family planning is very low and this creates a gap between uptake and the number of sexually active girls of adolescent age.
According to research by Women’s Weekly Journal, most adolescents lack adequate knowledge on contraception. Very few girls and young women seek knowledge on contraception because of various reasons. This is a worrying trend, putting into consideration that adolescents are the most sexually active group.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that approximately 16 million adolescents aged 15-19 give birth every year mostly in developing countries, and most of these are unplanned pregnancies. This portrays a huge dilemma as it creates more underprivileged families thereby worsening poverty.
Causes of low uptake:
Barriers to access – Most young girls and women are faced with challenges in accessing contraception. This ranges from shortage of health care facilities, distance, poor delivery of supplies to remote areas etc.
Restrictive laws – Some laws restrict certain age groups from engaging in sexual activities hence it becomes difficult for girls in that age group to seek family planning services. For example in Zimbabwe, the age of sexual consent is 16 yet girls are engaging in sex as young as 12 years.
Poorly implemented policies – Most policies or intervention strategies rarely pay attention to communities’ cultural, religious and traditional beliefs. Some also have a lot of loopholes which poses challenges in terms of producing the desired outcome.
Societal norms – Some societal norms restrict girls and women from using family planning, for example the apostolic sect. Christianity is also against premarital sex yet most adolescents engage in sex before marriage as such they end up shunning away from seeking such services due to fear of stigma and being labelled as immoral.
Unfriendly service providers – Some health care workers as not as accommodating to young girls who seek family planning services. They tend to be judgemental or turn to verbal insults.
Lack of knowledge on where to get contraception
Lack of agency in making choices
Incorrect use
What can be done to rectify these challenges:
Providing adolescents with youth friendly services
Improve political will which leads to drafting of inclusive policies and supportive laws
Partnering with pharmacies to increase supply and easy access
To implement evidence based interventions
Providing adequate information