Veneranda Langa| Shamva South MP, Joseph Mapiki (Zanu PF) had people who attended a meeting of MPs and Population Services Zimbabwe (PSZ) officials on family planning in Nyanga (Monday) in stitches, when he suggested that birth control pills for men should also be introduced.
Mapiki’s arguments were premised on the fact that some men were hoodwinked into having more children by their wives when they no longer wanted them.
“Are there family planning pills that have been manufactured for men to ingest to ensure they do not get tricked into impregnating women when they do not want children because some men are forced by their wives to have more children when they do not want to?
“It is also important for men to have an interest in family planning issues so that they understand when their women suffer side effects due to the family planning methods that they will be using,” he said.
PSZ acting country director Pester Siraha said although such a pill was not available in Zimbabwe, some countries were already doing research on the possibility of having birth control pills for men.
According to an analysis on an online newsletter RH Reality Check by Valerie Tarico, more men were now questioning whether they should trust women to manage contraception.
“Interest in better male controlled contraception varies widely depending on country and culture, but in a wide variety of countries, more than half of men say they want better male birth control methods,” Tarico wrote.
Siraha said it was imperative for men to also have an interest in family planning, or even to accompany their wives whenever they visited family planning clinics.
A good example of a man who is interested in family planning is Trymore Saunyama, a father of three from Nyakadzodzo village in Mozambique, which borders Chatindo village in Nyanga.
Although his village is geographically in Mozambique, it is just a 10km walk to Chatindo Clinic in rural Nyanga. This is where Saunyama accesses medical care together with his family.
On Monday, Saunyama got wind that the PSZ mobile Blue Star family planning services would be stationed at Chatindo Clinic to help villagers who have to walk very long distances seeking medical care to access the services, and to get counselling on different family planning methods like jadelle, the loop, tablets, tuba ligation, vasectomy and many others.
What was interesting about Saunyama is that he did not only accompany his wife to get advice on family planning, but he also came to the clinic with a baby strapped on his back — a rare sight.
“I accompanied my wife Dorcas Nyamanhu to the clinic because I think it is very important for men to understand the family planning method that will be recommended for their wives,” said Saunyama, with the baby sleeping soundly on his back.
“We have three children, and two of them are still very young. My wife cannot carry the two young ones so I have to help her as the clinic is 10km away from my village in Mozambique.”
Saunyama said even though he was from the Mozambican side, he was allowed to access medical treatment from Zimbabwe for a fee, including family planning services offered by PSZ mobile Blue Star clinics.
“We pay $2 consultation fees, and the family planning tablets are provided for free,” he said.
“I think men should support their wives and accompany them to family planning sessions so that they decide together which methods of family planning they would like to take. There are long term and short-term methods.
“It is imperative for couples to decide together how many children they would like to have because unwanted pregnancies can be costly. It is also not a good idea to have many children that one then fails to educate, feed or clothe,” Saunyama said.
Tariro Chimombe, the clinic team leader, said a maximum of 60 rural women accessed family planning services from the clinic every day.
“People from the neighbouring villages in Mozambique take advantage of our services and access family planning services.
“They have the same privileges as their Zimbabwean counterparts and we do not charge an extra fee,” Chimombe said.
Siraha said mounting mobile clinics in remote rural areas was helpful in ensuring women did not have to walk very long distances to access modern family planning methods.
“Most of them choose to take long-term family planning methods that can be effective for five years because it is difficult to continuously travel long distances to access family planning tablets,” Siraha said.
Legislators from the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care visited the mobile family planning clinics in Nyanga.
Chairperson of the committee, Ruth Labode said mobile family planning clinics should be spread out to the very remote areas of the country that did not have clinics in order to assist women to ensure they avoided unwanted pregnancies.
Labode said she would also advocate for laws that would allow already sexually active children to access reproductive health education to avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Members of the committee said they would work with PSZ to disseminate information on reproductive health issues because knowledge and use of family planning reduced maternal mortality.
Sarah Shaw, the Marie Stopes International regional policy advisor for east and southern Africa, said Zimbabwe was well advanced in family planning systems, adding women used the same modern family planning methods as used in developed countries like England.
“The difference is that in England, use of family planning is more widespread because there are no cultural barriers. It is also free and easy to access,” she said. – Standard. By Veneranda Langa