African women can now decide when they want children

Health experts say Sayana Press, self-injectable contraceptives, currently being tested in Uganda and Senegal could revolutionise lives of women, particularly in rural Africa.

It can also reduce maternal and newborn deaths.

Emmanuel Mugisha of PATH, a global health organisation, disclosed this on Wednesday in Copenhagen at ‘Women Deliver’, the world’s biggest women’s health and rights conference in a decade.

He said with Sayana Press, a woman had the freedom to decide when she wanted children and when she did not, and the man would have no control.

Mugisha said self-injectable contraceptives would also reduce the high number of women dying during botched abortions.

He said the disposable one dollar device consisted of a small needle connected to a plastic bubble containing the contraceptive ‘Depo-Provera’.

Mugisha, who is PATH’s director in Uganda, said the device could be squeezed to inject a dose that lasted three months.

He explained that the self-injectables could have major impact on the lives of women who could not access clinics or who faced opposition to contraceptive use from their partners.

“The device called Sayana Press is a life-saver and a game-changer for family planning,” he said.

“About a third of maternal deaths could be avoided by delaying motherhood, spacing births, preventing unintended pregnancies, and avoiding unsafe abortions.

“Unwanted pregnancies also cut short girls’ education and stop them from reaching their potential.”

Mugisha said women in rural areas could spend an entire day trekking to a clinic and queuing for contraceptives only to discover they were out of stock.

“In Africa, one of the hindrances with family planning is access. The second hindrance is us, men,” he said.

“Most men don’t want family planning. Some want more children, but others think it interferes with their sex life.”

He added that the UN data had revealed that more than 225 million women in developing countries had an unmet need for family planning.

“If this need were met, unintended pregnancies would fall by 70 per cent, unsafe abortions by 74 per cent, maternal deaths by 25 per cent and newborn deaths by 18 per cent,” he said.

Mugisha said trials with Sayana Press, which was manufactured by Pfizer, were being carried out to ensure that women could remember to take it, administer it correctly and dispose of the device safely.

He disclosed that before extending it to other African countries, PATH was also conducting trials in Burkina Faso and Niger where community health workers were using the device to deliver contraceptives to women.

Meanwhile, Nomi Fuchs-Montgomery, an expert on contraceptive technology at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is supporting the trials, said early indications were very positive.

“We see so much promise with this, and this is really the future,’’ she said.

Fuchs-Montgomery said increasing the availability of contraception had a major role to play in meeting many of the Sustainable Developing Goals (SDGs).

She said that access to contraceptives allowed women to complete their education and also allowed them to follow their careers and participate economically.

Some 5,500 delegates, including policy makers, business leaders, health workers, activists and celebrities from over 160 countries, are attending the conference which will end on Thursday.