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Real Men Use Contraception
*** Men are now an important target audience for family planning services, says the just-published State of World Population Report from the United Nations Population Fund. But many men are still prejudiced against using condoms. In Ghana, Francis Kofi Amoah tells Ajoa Yeboah-Afari just why he changed his views and became a keen advocate of male contraception. ***
WHEN Francis Kofi Am oah and his bride de elded to wait a year or two before starting a family his friends laughed at him. But he stood firm. For behind the decision were two personal experiences; that of growing up as one of nine children, and that of fathering an unplanned baby
Kofi remembers the struggle his father and mother had to provide for them. Having put the older children through school, my parents found it increasingly difficult to care for the rest. We older children had to look after the younger ones as soon as we were out of school and earning.'
His second experience came when he was a polytech nlc student and made his girlfriend pregnant. The woman was also at college and the pregnancy forced her to drop out of her course. After the birth of their daughter. Kofi's girlfriend was unable to go back to school and this led to their break-up. She wished to become a trader but needed capital to start. He was unable to provide it and eventually they drifted apart. He married another woman three years ago
Kofi. 29. still has a bad conscience about the fact that he was the cause of his girl friend's inability to complete her schooling.
And more especially he re grets his stubbornness about family planning. She used to talk to me about the need for
contraception, but I refused to listen to her. We used no contraceptives at all. It was only after she became pregnant that 1 realised that she had been right and 1 should have listened to her.' By the time Kofi and his fl ancee set their marriage date, he had become a family plan nlng enthusiast and a founding member of his local "Daddies Club", a family planning support group, set up in 1980 by the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG).
The couple decided to delay having a family, by using con traception. Kofi s friends teased him, and asked him what he would do if eventually they found they couldn't have a baby. Undaunted. Kofi and his wife stuck to their plan, and
relied on condoms and contraceptive foaming tablets.
Of course I had a prejudice against using condoms Initially — like many Ghanaian men. But I got used to it. explains Kofi. After all. there's no reason why a man should put the responsibility for contraception on the woman.' Two years into their marriage they decided to start a family. Because we waited until my wife was ready for it she was very fit during pregnancy and delivered the baby without any problems.'
The friends who had been teasing him were silenced And then it was Kofi's turn to laugh at them, for another rea son. During the time before the baby came. I was able to save some money and buy household Items. So we had one problem less than other couples who had the care of a
baby, or babies, to budget for. They started coming to me to ask how I was able to manage so well...'
There was a time though that anything other than an early marriage, polygamy and a steady production of babies would have been unthinkable for Kofi. He was brought up to believe that a man proved his manliness by the number of children he could father’.
His village. Twlfu Mampome. was a typical farming community. The more wives a man had the more children he would have to ensure a regular supply of. as Kofi put it. manpower' — that means women and children — to work on the farms. The husbands were only Interested In being able to thump their chest and boast about the number of children from their loins, explains Kofi, smiling.
The husband would clear some land and share it among the wives and children to farm. Having done that, he washed his hands of them, provided no clothing, nothing. They were supposed to support themselves.
It's six years now since Kofi helped set up a local branch of the Daddies Club at his workplace in Daboase. During the
weekly meetings. PPAG siafT give talks on family planning methods and general health care Contraceptives are on safe.
Ghana has one of the higher population growth rates tn the world at 3.2 per cent accord Ing to UNFPA/Unlted Nations Population Fund, and so needs all the imaginative ideas It can get to encourage more people to plan their families. Daddies Clubs, some with T-shirts bearing a condom motif and the words "Wear Me', offer innovative and practical ways for men to become Involved This is crucial, since each of Ghana's mothers will have to have many fewer children than the current average of 6.3 If population targets are to be met.
One consequence of this high fertility rate Is that women have only short intervals between births and little time to recover from the pre
vloiis pregnancy According to Dr Mary Grant, a member of Ghana s ruling Provisional National Defence Council this contributes to the maternal mortality rate of 1.000 per 100.000 live births — third highest in the world
High population also leads to pressure on land, a factor .that has brought a change In the attitude of villagers In Twifu Mampome. Now family planning Is accepted, says Kofi with a grin, because men re alise they can't just collect wives and have children The land is no longer available
Now when polygamous couples look around and compare their children with those of parents who didn't have so many, they see that those others are better educated and do better In life than their own Now all the village people recognize that it is quality not quantity that counts, and they embrace family planning.'
- UNFPA