Family Planning in the Developing Nations: A Time for Change in Sub-Saharan Africa

The World Health Organisation`s original definition of Family Planning, by Dr. Clive Wood, before the First World Conference on Population in Bucharest in 1974, stated “Family planning is a way of thinking and living that is adopted voluntarily, upon the basis of knowledge, attitudes and responsible decision making by individuals and couples, in order to promote the health and welfare of their entire family.”

The history of family planning known as responsible parenthood can be traced back to the tradition of periodic abstinence within the Catholic Church known to the Early Church Fathers in A.D. 460. “Is it not you who used to counsel us to observe as much as possible the time when a woman, after her purification is most likely to conceive, and to abstain from co-habitation at that time?” (Augustine).¹ The first Family Planning Clinic in the world was opened by Jesuits in 1930 in New York to teach Catholics the Rhythm method of family planning.² Sadly, despite tremendous medical and scientific progress in this health science, the vast majority of people and policy maker`s knowledge of natural family planning is the ancient rhythm method.

Natural Family Planning

describes the culture and lifestyle of birth regulation by scientific technologies developed in accordance with natural law which regard human life as sacred and respect human life from the moment of conception. This new health science makes use of the knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of human reproduction with its naturally occurring rhythms of infertility and fertility

Fertility apps that can be used on mobile phones, and I-pads, are available to young women to monitor fertility. Many methods of natural family planning have been developed and include the Standard Days method, the Billings method, the Sympto-thermal method, and the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, with effectiveness rates comparable to the most effective contraceptives used for avoiding pregnancy. The same scientific principles are used to achieve pregnancy with 98 percent pregnancy rate within six cycles of use for couples of normal fertility. For infertile couples, Natural Procreative Technology (NaPro) has twice the live birth rate of in vitro fertilization.

Thomas Malthus`s (1766– 1834) erroneous theories of catastrophic spiraling population growth caused panic and initiated various strategies for Global Population Control catalyzing the development of modern contraception, abortion, and sterilization. In vitro fertilization, with its inevitable embryo wastage, became the solution to the problem of infertility which can result from a contraceptive mentality and lifestyle. These technologies constitute a “Culture of Death”, because human life is regarded as disposable if inconvenient.

The culture of death technologies are recognized by the new global post-modern cultural revolution, an atheistic secular humanism, which has its own ethics and agenda, and controls funding for programs to the developing nations. This culture, rooted in Western apostasy and driven by powerful minorities, has emerged at the rudder of world governance in the United Nations agencies, like UNFPA, and others, like Marie Stopes, Planned Parenthood, etc. Since 1989 it has operated under the guise of a “soft consensus” as the foundation for policy decisions, rather than scientific truths.

In regards to the very serious problem of maternal mortality in developing countries, there is a track record of programs being recommended without strong evidence of success, and not being changed over time despite lack of progress. Many such programs promote and fund contraception and abortion as the solution to maternal mortality in Africa.

The Lancet Report on Maternal Mortality in 2010 states that maternal mortality is rising in sub-Saharan Africa in spite of availability of contraceptives and abortion services. The greatest challenge in women`s health are these unacceptable rates of maternal deaths— >500/100,00 births—due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth, such as haemorrhage, infection, eclampsia, and obstructed labour, among others.

Maternal mortality is reduced by providing trained midwives and birth attendants, doctors, health services with referral facilities, blood banks, antibiotics, anaesthesia, universally available family planning, adequate primary health care, good antenatal care, and women`s education.

According to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA, the number of women with an unmet need for family planning increased in sub-Saharan Africa, from 31 million in 2008 to 36 million in 2012. The only family planning services which receive funding are contraception and abortion, despite their cost, many side effects, and resistance to uptake.

In Nigeria, in 2013, only one third of the demand for family planning was met, and only 15 percent of currently married women in Nigeria are using a contraceptive method, an increase of only two percentage points since the 2003 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) ten years prior. The 2008 survey showed that 72% of women and 90% of men are aware of contraception, but only 36% know or understand Natural Family Planning, usually the Rhythm Method.

Policy makers need to accept that the current sexual and reproductive health policies of the global agencies are not in line with our African heritage and cultural values of motherhood, marriage, fertility, premarital chastity, and fidelity in marriage. These family values have guaranteed the survival of Africans on a hostile continent from where they successfully populated the whole earth.³

Natural Family Planning remains a viable alternative to contraception and abortion in Africa. It is cheaper, free of side effects, has no continuous costs, and is accepted by most religions and cultures. The scientific and well researched Creighton Model FertilityCare System helps women to assess, monitor and manage their fertility naturally. It is 99% effective for child spacing and limiting family size, and highly effective to achieve pregnancy. Other benefits include pre-conception health maintenance and pre-marital gynaecological health education.

Our studies since 2008 have consistently shown that the Creighton Model FertilityCare System of Natural Family Planning is acceptable and effective in both urban and rural settings in different locations in Nigeria and West Africa. The Federal Ministry of Health in Njgeria has finally approved Natural Family Planning in its service provision protocols, and training manuals for doctors and midwives.

All natural family planning methods require instruction in the chosen method by competent teachers. Our challenge is the funding required to train the service providers to deliver the highest standard of Natural Family Planning throughout the country, and relegate the nightmare of maternal mortality and wastage of precious human life to the past where it belongs. Our hope is that God will provide.

1 Augustine 1887. The Morals of the Manichaens. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Volune IV. Chater 18. Eerdman`s Publishing Co.

2 Gladwell, Malcolm. 2007. “Basic Information on Natural Family Planning. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/nfp/information.shtml

3 Rebecca L. Cann et al “Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution”. Nature, 325 (1987), 31-36

Dr. Henrietta Williams, Obstetrician/Gynaecologist, is President of FertiityCare Centres of Africa (FCCAF), a group of 24 FertilityCare Medical Consultants and 40 FertilityCare Practitioners providing services in Nigeria, Africa.