Male Involvement in Family Planning in the Ga West District

The practice of family planning has not achieved the desired results due to inadequate involvement of males in family planning programs in many developing countries. Inadequate family planning strategies have continuously exacerbated the vulnerability of developing countries, culminating into hard core poverty. Consequently, many development practitioners and public health officials have advocated the involvement of men as a strategy in addressing the dismal performance of many family planning programs in Africa south of the Sahara, including Ghana. Initially, family planning was focused on the need of married couples to space children and limit family size during the first part of the 20th century. In contrast, the Cairo declaration demands men's participation in family planning and reproductive health in terms of gender equality and fulfilling various reproductive responsibilities. It is argued that "men are partners in reproduction and sexuality and therefore it is logical that they equally share satisfying sexual lives and the burdens of preventing diseases and health complications"(Green, et al., 1995). Similarly, the introduction of family planning programs in the Ga West district has not achieved the desired result. According to the Ga West district Health Directorate Annual Report for 2007, family planning acceptor rate was 18 percent. Some researchers and health advocates have attributed the low contraceptive prevalence to the alienation of men in family planning programs in the district. The extent of male involvement in family planning programs has not been determined through any investigation. This research, therefore, assessed the extent of male involvement in family planning programs, specifically on the level of knowledge, support, and practice of males in family planning programs in the Ga West district of Ghana and suggesting some recommendations that can serve as a possible basis of improving male and female uptake of FP in future. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional study with a representative sample of 244 men and women in their reproductive age (17-56years) that are family/ household heads and are resident in the district with 3-8 children and married and some health centers Sampling techniques used in sampling respondents for the study included, simple random sampling which was used to select the ten communities in the chosen sub-district, systematic sampling also used in selecting the various households for the study and finally purposive sampling used to select mother-in-laws, Chiefs, opinion leaders and women leaders for the Focus Group Discussion. The results of the study indicated that an over whelming majority of respondents (97.54%) do not do anything to support their partners in FP practice, with an encouraging more than half (52.87%) of the sample having knowledge of FP methods, with a relatively few (44.26%) proportion of the sample approving to the practice of family planning as compared to (55.74%) disapproving to their spouses practicing FP. Also, over eighty percent (80.53%) of respondents currently do not practice family planning, with a discouragingly low percentage (19.67%) currently practicing family planning. Again, there exist a general negative attitudes, perceptions and beliefs towards male involvement in FP among people of Ga west district. For instance (71.72%) intimated their dislike to family planning because of the perception that it interrupts sexual satisfaction. Although, there has been a conceptual shift in the objectives concerning male participation in family planning from increasing contraceptive use and achieving demographic goals to effective men participation in the family planning and reproductive health in terms of gender, equality and fulfilling various reproductive responsibilities, the results of the research revealed that male involvement has been relatively low in Ga West District, consequently some women secretly indulge in family planning without their husband’s concern. This normally leads to repercussions such as beatings, dissatisfaction and disaffection from their husbands and consequently divorce. It is my conviction that family planning programs should place emphasis on education and existing social and cultural institutions in the Ga West district so that collaboration could be built with traditional leaders which would establish open discussions on family planning and other health related issues, knowledge of which would later be impacted to men within the various sub-districts.

Source: KNUST