The Reproductive Health Unit of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital has encouraged parents to put their sexually active adolescents on family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies and deaths due to abortion.
Mrs Juliet Amewu, the Principal Nursing Officer in charge of the Unit, said it was important, parents adhered to the advice as some adolescents were actively engaged in sexual activity and therefore the need for medical assistance.
She said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra.
She said the unit’s outreach visits to some schools especially the Senior High level revealed that some adolescents took dangerous steps to terminate unwanted pregnancies and that it was necessary to put them on family planning to safeguard their future.
Mrs Amewu said abstinence was key, but in instances that young ones were engaged in sexual activity at a high rate they needed to be counseled to take family planning methods.
“People pretend things are not happening and adolescents are too young to be on a contraceptive, but young people are having sex all over especially those in the Junior High and Senior High Schools and when engaged reveal things even adults are not aware of.”
She said family planning was good and played a significant role in the lives of many women in their childbearing age and was the safest way of preventing unwanted pregnancies and deaths among adolescents.
Mrs Amewu said some adolescents took bold steps to visit the Unit on their own, while some were brought by their parents for family planning.
“Some adolescents have terminated pregnancies on their own, parents too have been through a lot regarding their children and because they want peace they bring their girls for counseling and family planning,” she noted.
The PNO said it was better to protect adolescents through family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies rather than jeopardizing their future and called on couples and individuals to visit facilities before starting their family planning and not the myths and misconceptions people attached to the service.
Mrs Amewu also advised sexually active people to use contraceptives adding that, “emergency contraceptive is what people are using more, but they have to be cautious because the pill is not to be taken at the end of every sexual intercourse.”
Use the normal regular family planning methods and emergency should be emergency to prevent future repercussions, she said.
Source: GNA
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