Lamisi is a 34-year-old who sells vegetables in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. She first learned about family planning methods at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s (KATH) Reproductive Health Center in Kumasi five years ago. With the right information and access to quality reproductive health services over the years, she and her husband have had the number of children they wanted, when they wanted them.

“When I was having children in quick succession, my husband came home very late. He felt staying away for long could address the problem but it did not. Now, he is always with me just after work and we’re a happy family”, Lamisi said. She said she took the decision to delay having more children at the right time, otherwise, they would not have had enough money to send all of them to school and support their other basic needs.

Thousands of other people like Lamisi, who have received various forms of contraception at the KATH Reproductive Health Center, say that the center gives them the peace of mind “to enjoy” their marriages.

While breastfeeding her fourth child at the Child Health section of the hospital, one client named Akua decided to speak with the nurse about stopping childbearing. The nurse explained all the options to Akua, and she asked some questions. Since Akua knew her mother and sisters had negative ideas about the methods she could not readily decide. “But I can’t continue having children”, she said. Akua then decided on a method, the three- month injectable. “Since then my husband and I no longer think of pregnancy. We’re enjoying our marriage and all my five sisters have also gone to the center for it”, Akua said. For Lamisi, she had her first child at age 18. Less than a year after delivery, she got pregnant again. During the next pregnancy she went to the center for advice. The nurses discussed the various family planning methods with her and she decided to have NORPLANT. NORPLANT is a long acting birth spacing method that is surgically inserted into a woman’s arm and lasts up to 5 years.

Prior to 1985, there was no specialized center in Kumasi for family planning services. Services were given by individual doctors as part of general medical care. Many women wanted to know more about family planning and how to get services. There was an urgent need for organized family planning service for women who had completed their family or expressed the desire to obtain some form of contraception.

Having the full range of options and choices of methods is very important in family planning programs. With this in mind, USAID supported the introduction of all contraceptive methods, including the establishment of a surgical center to handle IUD insertions, NORPLANT and male and female sterilizations. Doctors and nurses were trained in Kenya to equip them with the skills to counsel clients, provide temporary methods and even to perform female sterilization. “The response was so overwhelming that there was the need to expand the facilities to accommodate more clients and services, train additional personnel and acquire a building for family planning services”, said Dr. Kwabena Danso, head of the center. USAID again funded the construction of the Reproductive Center at a separate part of the KATH. The private setting allows clients to freely walk to the center since it has many rooms for one-on-one counseling and a surgical theater within. Nurses were also trained to counsel clients on the various methods available to enable them to make the best decision.

Today the KATH Reproductive Health Center provides all forms of family planning services, counseling and other reproductive health activities. It is the leading family planning center in Ghana and provides training for all categories of health workers in Ghana and from other countries in West Africa. Over 10,000 people visited the center in 2003 for counseling, compared to about 8,700 in 1998. A review of the client records showed that most clients prefer the injectable contraceptive. In fact, injectable users rose from 262 in 1998 to 3,545 in 2003. In addition, more than 500 women used long-term contraception methods.

For Lamisi and the thousands of clients like her, the USAID-funded center has not only helped them to limit their family sizes, making it possible for them to support their children with their basic needs, but also assisted them to continue enjoying their marriages.

Story and Photo by Henry Akorsu