UNIC/OUS/44/2012
Media Advisory
“When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life”
World Population Day – Wednesday 11 July 2012:
Pretoria, 11 July 2012: This year’s annual World Population Day theme - Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services – was chosen because for all women globally and in South Africa, reproductive health problems constitute a leading cause of ill health and death. A key component of this year’s theme is family planning, especially for young women.
Recent media reports highlight the growing problem of a dearth of reproductive health services and information in South Africa. Many adolescent pregnancies are unintended and the rate of unsafe abortions among young women is high. The unmet need for modern contraceptives remains elevated and the demand will continue to rise as young people are entering their reproductive years and many will wish to have smaller families than their parents.
Evidence shows that access to voluntary family planning alone can reduce unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths and disabilities, thereby saving women’s lives and those of their children. This access also allows women to enjoy planned pregnancies which increase a mother’s chances of surviving childbirth. South Africa is the latest country to launch the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality (CARMMA) – an African Union initiative - which seeks to improve maternal, neonatal and child health and survival.
Family planning is a basic human right. However, it remains meaningless unless individuals and couples have access to contraceptives, information and services to enable them to exercise that right. We have to meet the needs of the 222 million women globally who want to delay or avoid pregnancy but have no access to modern contraceptives. UNFPA is supporting the Department of Health in South Africa with the provision of 5 million female condoms over the next two years, empowering women with the option of controlling their own reproductive health. The Honorable Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is attending the London Summit on Family Planning on this World Population Day. The aim of this summit is to generate the political commitments and resources required to meet girls and women’s family needs for family planning in the poorest countries.
Supporting the Eastern Cape health department to support existing Maternity Waiting Facilities/homes (MWF/H) is a bid to bring health care closer to pregnant mothers. These are residential facilities located within hospital premises for pregnant women who live far from health service points. Many of the women who use these services live in deep rural areas and cannot access maternity services easily or cheaply. With the support of UNFPA, the Eastern Cape Department of Health will be expanding the services offered by the existing (MWF/H) in order to reach and ensure that more pregnant mothers and their babies survive childbirth.
‘I stay so far from this hospital, and in my village we do not have transport. Even if we manage to get transport, they charge so much money when you are desperate! I am happy I came here when I was still able to walk to nearest bus stop. I did not pay lot money to get here, and look I have delivered my little boy without any problems’,
(comment from one of the mothers who had already delivered at the one of the Eastern Cape facilities).
On this World Population Day, UNFPA reaffirms its commitment to work with all of its partners to ensure that universal access to sexual and reproductive health, especially voluntary family planning, is recognized as a key element of the new international development agenda after 2015, and of all development and poverty reduction plans and policies.
For More information contact:
Ms. Rayana Rassool
External Relations Officer (Pretoria)
Tel.
+27 82 416 3474 / 012 354 8417
ras...@unfpa.org
Mr. Adebayo Fayoyin
Regional Communications Adviser (Johannesburg)
Tel.
+27 11 603 5303 /
fay...@unfpa.org
