Lower
River Region (LRR) Principal Nursing Officer, Basiru Dammeh, has said family
planning reduces wife battering in The Gambia.
He was speaking during an interview at Soma,
LRR, where the Family Planning Campaign was ongoing on the theme “Family
Planning: yes to choice, no to chance.”
Mr
Drammeh recalled when they were young, quarrels between husbands and wives
broke out after dinner within their communities and society.
He
said because most of the time a woman was breastfeeding it would not allow her
to be intimate with her husband and that was why wife battering was common in
those days, immediately after dinner.
Now,
with the coming of family planning, wife battering has reduced drastically
because FP commodities make it easy for both husband and wife to be intimate
whilst preventing unwanted or unplanned pregnancy.
The
cervical cancer screening was for them to check and see if women have it or
not, he said, adding that if those women that are screened have cancer they
would be given medicine to tackle the disease.
He
said cervical cancer screening is not something that happens everywhere in the
country, so bringing the SOS Mothers clinic from Banjul to LRR was something
very valuable and important.
Mr
Drammeh said if women have cervical cancer it would disturb them a lot, adding
that it was important for them go for the screening because early detection
would potentially save them from it.
“Family planning is not also about just birth
spacing but goes further than that. It is about giving the mother enough time
to gather strength and be healthy,” he said.
It
was also about the health, growth and welfare of the child, he said, adding
that family planning is about the health, growth and welfare of the family as a
whole.
According
to him, family planning by the traditional method has been in existence since
time immemorial and that some women would tie something around their waist.
He
said other women would be sent to their mother’s house to go and breastfeed for
a long time whilst others have a big house called “women house” where
breastfeeding mothers would be stationed away from their husbands till they are
done.
He
said in modern family planning, there is no need for a woman to go far away
from her husband but a woman could stay with her man whilst breastfeeding and
would not get pregnant.
Lamin
Saidykhan, representing the Governor of Lower River Region (LRR), thanked the
UNFPA for coming up with such initiative, especially for child bearing mothers
who are sexually active.
He
said if a woman’s system is not functional it would effect the population and
in turn effect development.
According
Mr Saidykhan, this kind of initiative helps a lot of people in knowing their
health status regarding cervical cancer and also HIV/AIDS.
He
called on the community to come out and do the screening for their own benefit
to be able to know their health status.
Bakary
Conta, a nurse at Soma Health Centre, said HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence but
people make it difficult on themselves.
He
said the disease could be in you for 40 years without people noticing or
knowing what is happening to you.
He
said HIV/AIDS should not be hidden but is to be revealed so that the society
could help you.
He
also urged the people to come and do the cervical cancer screening.
Sheriff
Darboe, a retired Nurse at soma health, currently on a contract at support
society, said the initiative was to fight against the scourge that is sexual
transmitted diseases.
He
urged everybody to come together to fight against HIV/AIDS and also do the
testing so as to know their health status.