By - Laws Penalizing mothers who deliver their babies at home

The trend of enacting by-laws that punish women who deliver at home is increasing . First ,It was Nwoya ,now Kabale  district ,

The Kabale District speaker Pastoli Twinomuhangi said on Wednesday that he is ready to present the draft by-law for the council’s consideration. This follows a recent survey in Rukiga, one of the four counties in Kabale District, where it was found that nearly one in every two expectant women that TBAs help to give birth, die.

Here is the link of the Newspaper article;

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kabale+considers+law+to+force+pregnant+women+into+hospitals/-/688334/1463854/-/iox4poz/-/index.html

I am don't think these laws will help because already the entire health system is weak forcing women to deliver from health facility per say will not help much if they reach there and find no supplies, drugs, few midwives, ambulance system down, and we all know most men are the key decision makers whether the woman should go to a health facility or to the Traditional Birth Attendants.

Your comments are welcome my dear blog followers.

Female Condom Fact Sheet

    

Introduction

Uganda Female Condom Coalition (UFCC) is a policy advocacy coalition comprised of twenty organizations working on reproductive health and HIV and AIDS that are committed to the promotion of the use of the Female Condom as an alternative means of family planning and prevention of STIs/HIV and AIDS. The Coalition was galvanized into formation after the training on ‘Female Condom Advocacy’ training organised by Centre for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and Global Campaign for Microbicides in June 2009. 

In Uganda women make up more than half of the 1.3 million people currently infected with HIV. The consequences of unprotected sex and the huge burden of unplanned pregnancy and risk of infection are primarily faced by women. This situation calls for a response that effectively addresses the exceptional vulnerability of women moreover HIV/AIDs infection patterns have shifted from single/casual to long-term stable relationships. Uganda’s 2005 sero-survey suggests that up to 65% of new HIV infections are occurring among married people making it necessary for new strategies to be adopted and the female condom is one such strategy.

The facts speak for themselves about the acceptability of the female condom, its effectiveness and the action that has to be undertaken. Female condoms exist now; the push for universal access to them should begin.

Why the Female Condom should be Accessible?

251 million women in developing countries would like to use the female condom but have no access to it.

·      The female condom offers women and men dual protection

·      The female condom protects sexually transmitted infections including HIV and prevents pregnancy.

·      The female condom contributes to meeting international commitments on development.

·      The Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) on maternal and child mortality and morbidity rates, as well as   HIV/AIDS will not be attained if existing technologies, such as the female condom, remain out of the reach of women who need this condom.

·      Gender inequality is an important driver of the HIV epidemic, the feminisation of AIDS has become a reality. Women make up more than half of the 1.2 million people currently infected with HIV in Uganda. In sub-Saharan Africa 76% of HIV-positive youth are female. Women and girls face the consequences of unprotected sex and bare a huge burden of unwanted pregnancy and risk of infection. The female condom is the only device that offers dual protection, is women-initiated and is available now. Universal access to female condoms should therefore be a priority.

The Availability of Female Condoms in Uganda

•    From 1993 to 2005 the only female condom was the Female Health Company FC.
•    FC1 is now being replaced by FC2, those are the only two female condoms with WHO pre qualification
•    Dr. Reddy female condom has not yet fulfilled all the requirements of the WHO pre-qualification procedure. It is approved for use throughout Europe and many other countries and around five million were sold commercially between 2003 and 2007.
•    The PATH woman’s condom is under development and is seeking funding for trails to gain approval.
•    Only 0.24 per cent of all condoms produced are female-condoms.

What is hindering the Demand/Uptake of the Female Condom?

•    Failure to promote and increase the production of female-condoms is due to: ignorance, culture, denial, “poverty” and conservatism:
•    Ignorance causes poorly informed decision makers to rely on media stereotypes regarding female condoms rather than scientific studies.

•    Culture creates a sometimes explicit bias to female condoms; the personal beliefs and values of a few individuals often prevail over evidence informed policy guidance.
•    Denial allows sceptics to argue that the female-condom is just an expensive condom that still requires negotiation. Moreover, it permits ignorance towards the men who don’t like to use male condoms, and prefer female-condoms.
•    “Poverty” and the claim that female-condoms are not affordable are the most publically acceptable reasons for failing to make female-condoms accessible

Benefits of the Female Condom

•    Qualitative studies find an increased sense of power for negotiation of safer sex, and a greater sense of control and safety during sex, among women using female-condoms.
•    Effective female-condom programming also enables women, men and health professionals to gain a better understanding of women’s bodies and a greater ability to discuss sexuality and safer sex.
•    Female-condoms have the advantage of no side effects, are reversible forms of contraception, and can be used without seeking a health-care provider.
•    Female-condoms offer more flexibility regarding the timing of putting them on (up to 8 hours before the sexual act) and taking them off.
•    Synthetic female-condoms have a soft, moist texture which feels more natural during sex. For men the sensation is closer to that of sex without a condom, because female condoms do not fit tightly around the penis as male condoms do.
•    Unlike latex condoms, synthetic female condoms are not damaged by oil based lubricants nor affected by changes in temperature and humidity, so they can be safely stored almost anywhere.

Recommendations for Change:
•    Reduce the price of female-condoms. This can achieved by creating demand, investing in new designs, encouraging the not-for profit production of female-condoms, and allowing generic versions of female-condoms to be produced.
•    Create visible global leadership through the collaboration of UNAIDS, UNFPA, and donor and development organizations. Use this global leadership to promote female-condoms as a contraceptive and a prevention method against STIs including HIV. Moreover, work to raise the female-condom distribution rate and lower the cost.
•    Incorporate the female-condom within the gender and health policies of UN agencies and international donors. Incorporation of such would significantly boost investment.
•    Support female-condom research and development. Variety is needed because it is not one size fits all. Moreover a new female condom is needed to increase demand and will reduce the price.
•    Create comprehensive long-term integrated female-condom programming. National governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector should collaborate to create programming and thus work to make female condoms available to all women and men.

Back ground and Women's Health and Rights

The policy environment in Uganda is supportive of the condom promotion in principle, and there are currently no regulations that would negatively affect the design and implemenattion of female condom program. The Ministry of Health has been implementing a "quite" condom promotion policy. A draftcondom policy document has been developed by the Ministry of Health in Uganda. However, it has been publicly launched, or disseminated widely due to lack of consensus among key developemnt partners.

According to the Situational Analysis of the Female Condom (FC) in Uganda by the Ministery of Health of February 2009, the FC program adopted a strategic apporach of using existing structures. However, it lacked an explicit implementation strategy and realistic provions for funding to support tratining, community mobilization, demand generation and distribution. No promotion strategy was planned or executed, nor were target groups prioritised to optmise uptake through existing channels. Service providers were not able to provide interpersonal outreach which has been shown to be  a key factor for successful trial and subsequent uptake. The majority of people interviewed across the country had never seen the FC. It was difficult to find users who were not part of an FC study. Commercial Sex Workers [CSW] honed their negotiation skills and used it successfully with clients. Price was an important barrier to condom use for the FC users, all women of low income. Other factors that discouraged use were partner refusal, aesthetics and cultural practices. No operational systems were developed for monitoring and evaluation, quality assurance and management oversight.  






The sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls are intrinsically linked. It is essential that global and domestic women’s organizations support each other’s efforts to embrace and promote the use of the female condoms as a strong tool against HIV and other STIs, as well as maternal deaths.NACWOLA - Uganda is currently coordinating a coalition for female condom promotion advocacy. So let us support the efforts of the coalition. Together we can.....

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission:
Although the supply of anti-retroviral treatment is helping to reduce the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS, AIDS is still a leading cause of mortality worldwide with an estimated 1.8 million deaths in 2009.6 Three-quarters of these were in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS is the primary cause of death.

The consequences of HIV/AIDS transmission

 

 

 HIV/AIDS infections were initially concentrated among men, but women and girls now account for slightly more than half of all infections. In sub-Saharan Africa, more women than men are living with HIV/AIDS, and young women aged 15–24 years are as
much as eight times more likely than men to be HIV-positive. In some countries, even being married is a risk factor for women to acquire HIV/AIDS. The consequences of HIV/AIDS infection are also skewed against women and girls, who do most of the caring, but are more likely to miss out on schooling, experience gender-related violence, and loss of property as a result of HIV/AIDS infection.

Female condom demonstration

 

Background information about the female condom:
Why is universal access to female condoms urgently needed?
The consequences of the unmet need for contraception. Despite the range of highly effective contraceptive options available, there is nonetheless a great unmet need for contraception, particularly in the developing world. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that there are around 215 million women worldwide who would like to limit or plan the number of children they have, but who are not currently using any form of contraception. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in developing countries, more than one-third of all pregnancies are unintended, with major implications for each child, each woman, each family, and wider repercussions on overall society related to population growth. A fifth of all pregnancies end in induced abortion.2 Of these abortions, more than half is executed by unsafe means. Worldwide, 21,6 million unsafe abortions cause 5 million women to be hospitalized each year, and account for 13 percent of maternal deaths.While global contraceptive prevalence has increased slowly from 55
percent of women of reproductive age in 1990 to 64 percent in 2005, it remains low in sub-Saharan Africa at just 22,8 percent. Meeting the current need for contraception would reduce maternal deaths by around a quarter. Making the female condom available to all women and men would increase the instances of protected sex and thus contribute to the reduction of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths.

Female condom training....