A story is often told of a woman who, without the consent of her husband, used a family planning method so she would permanently stop bearing children. One fateful day, her one and only son got electrocuted and died. He was the father’s favorite so he demanded that they should try and have another son. It’s quite very significant and prestigious for most African husbands to have a son, who they refer to as their heir. Some women have been divorced and despised for failure of giving birth to a male child.
A story is often told of a woman who, without the consent of her husband, used a family planning method so she would permanently stop bearing children.
One fateful day, her one and only son got electrocuted and died. He was the father’s favorite so he demanded that they should try and have another son.
It’s quite very significant and prestigious for most African husbands to have a son, who they refer to as their heir. Some women have been divorced and despised for failure of giving birth to a male child.
They were a young couple so he told her that they should try and have more children, in search of a son. She couldn’t tell her husband about the family planning method she had used because he would be mad at her.
He always thought she was using other temporary pills. She didn’t want to have more children so she used a permanent method to thwart every attempt of adding to her big number of children.
The story is a long, but it all ended in divorce all because of the type of family planning method she had chosen.
Several women are affected differently by certain contraceptives. Some have suffered consequences such as the birth of abnormal children, prolonged bleeding, excess weight gain, hair falling off, miscarriages and so many more.
This is because of the choice of family planning method they choose to use—most times without expert advice from professional medical personnel.
Many women today rely on the advice of fellow women on which type of family planning method to use. They have the mentality that if a certain contraceptive has worked well for a friend, then it will certainly have the same results for them.
Thomas Nsengiyumva, an expert in charge of Family Planning in the Ministry of Health, said women should always seek medical advice on family planning methods.
He said that most women are allergic to certain family planning methods because they do not get advice from health professional that is specialized in the area.
"Some women get prescription from untrained medics so they end up suffering from different side effects,” Nsengiyumva said.
He said that women should always agree with their husbands on which contraceptives to use after following the advice of a professional health worker.
He stated that every method of contraception works best and may have different reactions to different women. According to him, each has side effects.
Garamanda Niyonzima, a businesswoman in Giporoso market who is popularly known as ‘Shangazi’, said, "So many women are suffering from serious complications because they used the wrong contraceptives which weren’t compatible with their body type.”
Niyonzima urges women to seek professional medical counseling before deciding on which type of family planning method to use.