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From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The perception that men are more against family planning (FP) in northern Nigeria is slowly changing, as a Gombe State-based husband explained how he struggled to persuade his wife to change from the practice of yearly childbirth to embrace child-spacing.
The sensitization and campaign on the use of contraceptives in Gombe State have been for men to encourage and allow their wives to space between childbirth. According to Malam Alhassan Yahaya, the chairman of an Advocacy Working Group (AWG) on FP, which is called child spacing in Gombe, the target has always been for husbands to support their wives in accessing such services.
He told Daily Sun that his team had been engaging more men and husbands to buy into the idea and subscribing to the practice, which seeks to ensure healthy families in the state. However, 40-year-old Aminu Salisu Mahadi, who had been against the sensitisation to delay and space between childbirth, disclosed that he almost lost his marriage for insisting that his 29-year-old wife must subscribe and observe child spacing.
He told Daily Sun in an interview at his residence in Gombe metropolis that the idea and benefits of the national campaign on child spacing was sold to him by a friend who was already benefiting from the programme. Mahadi, father of eight, revealed that when the information was first brought to him by a health worker at a health facility, he saw it as a taboo and a means to stop him from having children.
“But the story changed when I met my friend who had his wife subscribed to the method and was spacing between their children. She was doing well and she and her children were looking good and healthy,” he said.
According to Mahadi, he was lured by his desire to see his wife go back to school. He said: “When I told him that I wanted my wife to go back to school but her almost yearly childbirth was the challenge we were having, he explained to me that his wife was able to continue her studies after their marriage with the help of the child spacing programme.
“He said that they were using one method that is helping them space their children and allowing his wife to go back to school while caring for her children. I then got interested. So, he advised me to start using the child spacing programme because, the way my wife conceives and gives birth almost every year will not augur well for her and the family.”
After buying into the idea, Mahadi, a school teacher, explained that he encountered a new problem that almost ended his marriage: “When I went to discuss with my wife the need to start practising child spacing, she vehemently refused and that was when a very big problem started in the family.
“I used all means available trying to convince her. I even asked her parents to talk to her, but she refused. The problem continued to the extent that she left the house for a while, but returned after some pleas. She told me that she was suspecting that I wanted to bring in a second wife, that was why I wanted her to stop having children for me.”
However, Mahadi recounted that he was able to persuade her with the promise of sending her back to school. He further said: “I threatened her that if she does not further her education, I would marry a second and educated wife who would be working while she stays at home to take care of the children. That was how she quickly agreed. I then took her to a primary healthcare centre (PHC) where we agreed on a method and she started accessing services.”
He further disclosed that “now, with the use of child spacing, I am a very happy man, because I now cater well for my children. I feed and clothe them well, unlike in the past when all my money was always spent on nursing babies.”
While urging other husbands to support their wives in spacing between childbirth, Mahadi said: “This life is about planning. You have to plan well to raise good children in the society but if you keep having children, you may not be able to train them well and they will become a nuisance like we are seeing today in the society.”
Narrating her ordeal, Shamsiya Abdulaziz revealed that her major reason for kicking against the idea of spacing between her children was because the society made her feel she had to try as much as possible to have a good number of children before old age.
The 29-year-old mother of eight explained that her husband had a tough time trying to convince her to adopt the habit of spacing and resting between each childbirth. She said: “I thought he was being unreasonable because the society we are in kept pushing me to keep on having children. So, I get pregnant while still breastfeeding. I even lost three children and had some miscarriages.”
However, after the struggle, which she described as a tug-of-war in the family, they went to the PHC, where she was given the injectable method to start with. She said: “After three years, I removed the device and I then took in; after delivery, I went for another method, which was Jadelle implant, for five years, but I changed it after two years because I started experiencing unusual bleeding.”
Shamsiya attested that the children she spaced were healthier and more active than others and she now has adequate time to care for the children and her husband as well: “I am more loveable now because I am more attractive to my husband now.”
Chairman of the AWG, Yahaya, disclosed that the campaign on child spacing was made very important in Gombe State because it has been confirmed by health experts that spacing between childbirth can reduce the rate of maternal mortality and morbidity, as well as infant and child deaths, which is high in the state.
“It can reduce the rate by up to 40 per cent. Hence, the need to embark on an intensive campaign to create demand and improve access to child spacing services.”
He explained that the sensitization has led the state to, between 2013 and 2022, record a significant improvement in acceptance and subscription to the programme by women of childbearing age.
However, he added that the issue of funding for the continuous running of the programme is a major challenge. According to him, “that is not just in Gombe State, but the country at large.”
He also called on government at all levels across the country to make adequate provisions and ensure timely release of funds to increase access and coverage area.
According to Yahaya, the number of cases of maternal mortality, morbidity as well as infant mortality, and child deaths are still high in Gombe and need more commitment from all actors in the state to be addressed.
He commended the government of Gombe State for expanding the delivery of services through the development of a PHC in each of the 114 political wards of the state.
According to a report released by the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, the maternal motility rate in Gombe stood at 390 deaths per 100,000 live births. While infant mortality rate is 21 deaths per 1,000 live births. The document also revealed that the mortality rate for under-five children is 31 deaths per 1,000 live births
